Mokuton Child
by Aelfin
Summary: Challenge by acepro evolution: An attack awakens a bloodline thought dead in Naruto - the Mokuton. With it, he can become one of the most powerful shinobi in the world - if he manages to survive the shinobi, bijuu and clans first.
1. Chapter 1

**Mokuton Child**

**This is a challenge by acepro evolution, read his profile for more details. I don't own the idea, or Naruto.**

**It should be noted that the majority of this fic was written before certain revelations appeared in the manga. Whilst I have modified part of the fic to run with that, the majority of it should be considered to be AU in those parts. **

Minato's hand shook as the ink dripped onto his son's skin, the heated air drying the markings within seconds. Under his heavy white coat was a thin sheen of sweat that seemed to cling relentlessly to him as he moved, barely pausing to wipe his brow as the sweltering heat increased almost beyond endurance. Even from here, the rage of the Kyuubi could be felt, a tangible snarl of hatred that slashed and bit whatever it could find. The red glow of the bijuu's chakra seeped through the window blinds, striping his desk in thin fingers of red-black, and its flickering light was barely enough to see the design spiralling out over the infant's stomach. But it was done now, a trap of flesh and ink that would hold the most powerful being the world had ever known.

Gently, he lifted the baby into his arms, ink splattering against wood as he let the brush tumble onto his desk. Before beginning his work, he had applied a genjutsu to the child to ensure he would sleep through the procedure, but Naruto had been awake long enough for his father to glimpse his startling blue eyes. Kushina had hoped that he would have those eyes - in fact, she'd loudly voiced her desire for their child to have all of his looks, if only so that he could inherit her sense of humour. Minato had wished otherwise - he felt any child of theirs would be far better off with at least some appearance inherited from their mother - but now he could only be glad of the resemblance. Perhaps it would make it easier for the village to treat Naruto as the hero he was if they could be reminded of who had made him into such. He would not fool himself into thinking that it would be an easy path - he had fought the jinchuuriki of Suna and Iwa in the war, he _knew_ how most villages treated them - and yet, he knew he had to make this sacrifice for Konoha.

Being a Hokage overruled all other responsibilities - even fatherhood.

The Kyuubi's roar ripped through the air, and the reddish glow filtering through the window intensified into the white-hot radiance of a furnace as the beast's chakra surged. Minato shook himself, angered at his hesitation, and started for the door. Every second of delay was more lives lost, more damage to the village he had sworn to protect. His fear - and he was afraid, he would not deny that now - was nothing compared to the suffering his ninja and civilians both were undergoing as they fought or fled the monster. He had prayed, he had prepared, and he was as ready as he would ever be. It was time for him to go and face the Kyuubi.

"So...still going through with this?"

Minato didn't bother to turn around. "Hello, Jiraiya-sensei."

The Sannin hopped down from the window, the white spikes of his hair drooping in the heat, his face uncharacteristically serious.

"You know what this will mean for him, don't you?"

Minato straightened his shoulders, jostling Naruto as he did so. The baby slept on, one fat fist curled in Minato's jacket. "I believe in Konoha, sensei. And I believe in Naruto as well. Out of all the children, he is the most suited to bearing the burden of being a jinchuuriki."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow as the sound of the Kyuubi's tails cracked through the air, loud enough to rupture the eardrums of those standing close to it.

"You don't think that he'll unlock the kekkei genkai, do you? It's been dead for decades, Minato, and the Kyuubi-"

"He doesn't need the full bloodline, sensei. Every Senju has shown some aptitude at, if not fully restraining, at least avoiding the attacks of the bijuu. Remember Tsunade-hime?"

Jiraiya winced. Although in later years he had easily boasted of the Sannin's wartime encounter with the Ichibi of Suna, the memory was still one that made him shudder - especially now, when his village faced Shukaku's far stronger counterpart. The host had been bad enough, all sunken eyes and waxy skin, with a drooling mouth and rasping voice that sounded barely human, but the beast itself had been something out of a nightmare. Yet while he had struggled with the scythe-like claws, the howling wind attacks and the ever-present choking sand, Tsunade had avoided most of the Ichibi's strikes as if they were a genin's shurikan - even battering through the rippling shield of sand that had been almost as fast as Minato's own Hirashin.

Whilst others might have put that down to Tsunade's skill as a kunoichi, Jiraiya could still recall how Shukaku had seemed to recoil instinctively from his team-mate, how the whipping sands had seemed to grow sluggish as Tsunade darted through them, the shield shattering under her blows like spun glass - none of which could be explained by anything Tsunade had done deliberately.

There had been only one explanation Jiraiya could come up with, and that was in the bloodline of his team-mate. No Senju since the Shodai had been able to wield the Mokuton, but kekkei genkai could never fully die out as long as the genes were still present. Dormant, perhaps, lying inactive in the genes for years until someday they were reawakened in a member of the bloodline without explanation - but never fully gone. It seemed possible that Tsunade, carrying the Mokuton in her genes if not able to use it herself, had been able to perform a shadow of what the Shodai's mere presence had been able to do - although that was far from being able to use the actual abilities of her grandfather herself, as so many Senju had longed for.

It couldn't be a question of skill, Jiraiya knew that. After all Tsunade was one of the finest members of the Senju clan, surely qualifying to inherit the bloodline if strength was what was needed. And Minato...

As if he knew what his sensei was thinking, the Yondaime smiled bitterly. "I know that, legally he's not, and never will be, part of that clan - but he's of their blood, and he's the best person available to be honest."

Jiraiya didn't know what to say. As a ninja, he knew that no person was perfect, that no village could be the paragon of light and goodness they might parade themselves to be, that no clan was beyond reproach - but still, he found himself surprised at the lengths some people would go to maintain those illusions.

After all, the patriarchs of respected clans were not supposed to go seeking affections elsewhere when their wives grew too old for them to desire any more. Young, impressionable kunoichi were not supposed to be wooed by said patriarchs and then be tossed aside once the men had had their fun. Those kunoichi weren't meant to end up pregnant and die in childbirth. Their children weren't meant to be tossed into orphanages and forgotten about.

And they certainly weren't meant to climb up from unwanted brats to Hokages possibly even more powerful than the Shodai himself.

Another roar sounded, rumbling through the air like distant thunder, and Minato smiled sadly. "I have to go, sensei. But...promise me you'll look after him, won't you?"

Jiraiya took a deep breath. _No_, he wanted to say. _No, I'm not cut out for raising a kid, I want to find out who's responsible for this, I have to see to the village first, I can't take a kid on the run with me, I won't settle down in the village again, not after this_. But Minato was staring at him pleadingly, needing the reassurance.

"Yes," Jiraiya lied. "I promise."

* * *

The Sandaime had not been happy to come out of retirement to serve again as Konoha's leader. Even if the village had not been half-destroyed, with the survivors stricken with grief and the other villages prowling around like wolves, ready to feast on the remains, he was an old man and the burden of ruling was not one he was eager to rest on his aged shoulders. Still, he knew his duty and was quick to set about restoring order and dealing with the numerous problems that had been left to him by the Yondaime - with one problem in particular becoming a noticeable thorn in his side.

Minato's instructions before he went to his death had been clear; the defeat of the Kyuubi could not have happened without the use of a sacrifice to forever restrain the bijuu, and the baby he had used for this purpose was to be honoured by the village as much as the man who had given his soul to the Shinigami to ensure the end of the attack. But the village was grieving, still seething with impotent rage against the being that had nearly wiped them out completely, and with no other target for their anger, the hate for the creature seemed to have been transferred to the child that held it.

In Suna or Kiri, this hate might have been dealt out in physical attacks, even attempted assassinations - although, with their jinchuuriki power steadily eclipsing even their kage's, it would seem that Kirigakure was beginning to regret the attacks that had honed the Sanbi's host into the vicious creature that some said could take control of their village. Konoha did not go such a route, although the Sandaime had guards posted around Naruto for several months after his birth, just in case. Instead, there was a cold, disdainful loathing of him that seemed to have permeated most of the village, with most apparently preferring to pretend he did not exist at all. Keen to avoid things deteriorating further, the Sandaime had Naruto relocating to an orphanage, one of the many that had sprung up or expanded in the wake of the Kyuubi's attack.

The staff were loyal, with most fond of the children in their care, but there was a limit to how much they were prepared to show the vessel of the creature that would have destroyed them all if the Yondaime hadn't given his own life to stop it. Aside from feeding and changing the boy, they interacted with him as little as possible, rarely speaking of him even to each other.

Which was possibly why none of them were able to acknowledge the strange things that kept happening around him.

At first, it was little things, irritating but easy to ignore. Papers rattled on clipboards when people walked past his cot, edges curling towards him as flowers to the sun until they were batted down by annoyed hands. The cot he was placed in was replaced after a few short weeks, its wood seeming to have bent and warped over time, until the formerly solid structure had curved inwards, splintering and cracking into arms that cradled the baby. This was blamed on the damp and a new plastic crib duly arrived, while an unlucky staff member scrubbed the floors and walls for hours in search of wet-rot. The flowers scattered in the grass outside began to move up the walls, blooms of white and green and purple sprouting through the threaded cracks in the sun-baked wood. Again, the staff came, and plucked them out, and none of them mentioned how the plants had seemed to strain towards the window where the child none spoke of slept.

By the time Naruto was six, his presence was becoming increasingly harder to ignore, namely because he went out of his way to make sure this was so. No longer content to stay quietly in his room, he pestered the staff constantly, tried to butt into the games of the other children until he was firmly shooed away, pulled pranks that caught far of the adults than they were willing to admit, made a mess of his room when shut up in it and overall behaved like an unholy terror. The only time he was quiet was when let out to play in the grass behind the orphanage. Overgrown and sloping downwards into a tangled thicket of trees, it was forbidden to the other children, but everyone seemed willing to let Naruto head outside if only it would keep him quiet.

There were dangers, of course, forgotten traps and slumbering snakes, poisonous berries and sharp stones. Yet somehow none of these seemed to touch Naruto, who would always tumble back into bed at late hours, filthy and tired but always happy. This was enough for the staff, who never bothered to watch him play, and so never saw exactly what he did whilst playing - nor any of the other dangers that might be lurking.

* * *

Uchiha Senzai was going to die tonight.

He didn't mind the thought. It had been months since the medic-nins delivered the grim news, months since the cancerous growths had unfurled in his lungs like poisonous flowers, months since his strength had began to sap as the aches and fatigue sank their teeth into his bones. He was fading, slowly but surely, and had long thought about making a more painless end himself.

It was then that he had received some quiet messages, passed along through a chain of trusted individuals that led…Well. Senzai had never spoken to them face to face, but such actions could only be sanctioned by the highest command within the Uchiha clan. It was they that had suggested this idea to him, this final use of a life that was guttering out in an ignoble end unworthy of a high-ranking chunin.

The Uchiha had been downtrodden for too long, denied the glory that should have been theirs from the very founding of Konohagakure. Soon, they would follow the path that Madara-sama had laid down for them, and strike at the heart of Konoha, cleansing and restoring it to what it _should_ have been, what their clan had laid their lives down for in those early days when war raged and there had been no villages at all.

But first, changes would have to be made, with the Uchiha chipping away at the remnants of the old times, piece by piece. If they were going to ensure their success, they would have to make sure that there were no surprises in store when they made their move; every action would have to be carried out with full knowledge of what lay ahead. And what could be more uncertain, more chaotic, more wild in its fortunes than the Kyuubi that crouched in their village in the form of a child?

The Uchiha had lost kin to the Kyuubi, as had all other clans, and their hate for the creature had burned in their breasts long after the tempers of the other Konoha nins had began to cool. But they had not acted rashly. They had listened to their clan elders, and those elders had looked to the Sandaime. When he said _no_ to their vengeance, they had sheathed their hate, even as their fingers twitched towards their kunai whenever the beast ran by.

But times had changed, and the elders would no longer let themselves be leashed by those who yet stood in their rightful place. The Kyuubi was a wild card, and the mask of an innocent it wore did not fool for a second those who were born to see through deception. It had power still, and who knew if the Sandaime would unleash that if sufficiently threatened? No, the jinchuuriki had to go - and, if he could offer nothing else, Senzai was sure that even his failing body would be able to overpower the Kyuubi's present, weakened form.

It would be a suicide mission, obviously. Even if the Kyuubi did not wound him in its bid to protect itself, ANBU would quickly track down the man responsible for the death of their weapon, and they would be sure to find out where he got the idea from. Senzai did not fool himself about his ability to withstand the attentions of Morino Ibiki. He had concealed a poison capsule on his person; one way or the other, this was the end, and a far better one than what his illness would offer.

* * *

Naruto laughed as he plonked himself down on the soft, loamy earth, his back to one of the massive trees that seemed to be everywhere around here. Ami, one of the girls at the orphanage, wouldn't even go near the back of the building 'cause she was afraid the trees were going to gobble her up. Naruto thought that that was the most stupid thing ever - trees didn't have mouths, so they couldn't eat people, and even if they did, the trees were too awesome to want someone as yucky as her - and had told her so, but all that got him was a telling off while Ami laughed at him and asked why he didn't just go and live in the dirt, like the trees did.

He'd gotten Ami back though; there was a tin of paint above her door right now, and she'd be splattered bright green as she opened it. Only that would get another grown-up yelling at him, so Naruto had gone out here to hide. It was getting dark, but he didn't mind - he'd been out here _loads_ of times by himself, and he didn't need anyone to look after him like the other kids did, it didn't even matter that none of them would care anyway-

Naruto scowled to himself, kicking his feet against the grass, pine needles bristling against his bare feet. In the distance, he could hear the chirp of bugs, and he squinted his eyes to see if he could spot any by him. No luck - but there _were_ plants, lots of them, brights flowers and spiky weeds and gnarly trees all pushing through the thick carpet of grass. Naruto flicked a short yellow flower, breathing in the sticky-sweet smell that was always hanging around the Yamanaka shop. "The flowers here are better," he told the clearing, and it seemed as though all the leaves around him were rustling in agreement.

He nodded to himself, using one of the bulging roots of the tree to push himself to his feet. Yeah, he didn't even want anyone out here with him, really. He had loads of fun on his own, even if the plants could get sort of weird out here. One time, he fell into a bush, and got so tangled up in it he couldn't get out for an hour - it was almost like it was clinging to him. Another time, he fell asleep in a bunch of flowers, and when he woke up, he was almost completely buried in them, his nose tickled until he nearly sneezed his head off. He felt sort of mean about crushing them, but that meant he'd had to carefully pick them off one by one and it took _hours_.

"At least _**you're** _not silly like that," he told the pine behind him, patting its mottled white bark encouragingly. He never got problems like that with big trees like this, maybe because they were grown-up trees - this one was over sixty years old! Some of the other trees were even older, but none of the other kids believed him when he said that, just because he couldn't prove it. He just _knew_ these things about the trees, in the same way he knew he had a tongue and ten toes.

Even worse, when someone asked Mrs Akachi, the head of the orphanage, she said it was true, and some of the trees had been there since before the Shodai founded Konoha. Even then, everyone said that he had gotten it out of a book, and didn't believe him when he said he didn't need a stupid book to know about that.

So preoccupied was Naruto in thinking about the unfairness of it all that he didn't even notice the ninja slinking through the trees, spinning red eyes fixed solely upon him.

* * *

Senzai had been careful to present an ordinary front as he walked through the village, the golden streets warm and welcoming in the late evening glow. He smiled at passersby, nodded politely at the familiar faces he saw, even chatted with a few, although most of his acquaintances wrinkled their nose when they caught the stench of alcohol on him. He had spent most of the day sitting in bars, looking morose as he ordered drink after drink, drumming his fingers in an endless beat against the polished tables. His wife Sayuri - and it was strange, how even now he felt an ache at the thought of her - had perished in the Kyuubi attack; everyone would think that this had been a drunken attempt at revenge, not a planned assassination. Even if some suspected, why would they bother to investigate the death of the monster that had killed so many?

And perhaps it would be cathartic, part of him had admitted to himself as he stared down into the amber liquid he'd nursed for hours, to be the one to banish Sayuri's killer into the next world, for however brief a time. Would the beast scream as he sliced its throat, let itself slip back into the monstrous form that was its true face as it died? Senzai didn't know, but oh, how his pulse quickened at the thought he would soon find out.

Eventually, he had peeled away from the hustle of the main street and slipped into the shadows provided by crooked roofs and the waning sunlight. Whoever had set this private mission within the clan had done their homework; he knew both which orphanage the demon had been placed in and where exactly it was located. He ducked down a side street, crossed over the Nakano river upon a bridge that echoed even the lightest of footsteps, listening to the dank black water lapping at the railings with a sense of resigned finality. In the distance, he could see the short, box-like structure that had been the Kyuubi's home for the last five years. Closing his eyes, he fanned out his senses, trying to detect the overpowering chakra that even a human form could not hide. To his annoyance, he could find no sign of it within the building itself, but a wider search caught the faintest flicker of a trail, leading away into the small forest that lurked at the back. While puzzled at how faded it seemed to be - the Kyuubi's chakra ought to blaze as bright as the sun, not be as soft and light as the chakra of…well, a _tree_ - he followed it in, teeth bared in a grin as he drew closer to his target.

The demon was lurking in the very heart of the forest, where the sharp-smelling pines drew close together and scant light filtered through the dense canopy of needle-like leaves. Its bright gold hair was a painted target against the dark, its body crouched against the ground as it peered at the coiled roots of a tree. His breath shuddering in his glutted lungs, Sanzai plucked a shuriken from his pouch and, with a practiced flick of his wrist, sent it whistling through the air towards its mark.

Just as the child looked up, a thick branch drooped in front of it, splinters of pale bark flying as the steel tips cracked home. The vessel let out a gasp, eyes darting around as they sought the attacker. When it finally saw him, rising out of the grass, it let out a shout of outrage, putting its hands on its hips. "Hey, you jerk! Watch where you're throwing that!"

Senzai didn't deign to reply, instead pulling a kunai from his belt. His hand was shaking slightly, but no matter - this would all be over soon. He saw the child's eyes widen as it took in the blade, heard it stammer out a new demand for answers with quavering bravado, but it all seemed strangely distant beneath the thrill of this snatch of glory for the Uchiha. He took a step forward, relishing the way the child flinched against the trunk of the tree as he raised the kunai-

-felt the sudden rush of chakra through the air-

-heard a _snap_ and a wet creak as the shadows moved and the moon was blotted out against a rush of rustling black-

And then there was only the screams.

* * *

Kiyumi shifted her weight on the branch, wincing as she peered over the edge of it to see the shattering drop below. It was old, this forest, and the trees were enormous, tall and thick enough to blot out her house twenty times over. Chakra hummed over the soles of her feet, anchoring her into place, but from way up here, that wasn't very comforting. Her small, skinny frame that was still awaiting the growth spurt enjoyed by everyone else her age seemed especially fragile against the thick boughs, like an ant clinging to a twig. If she fell, it would be a long way down.

Cautiously, she leant forward, trying to see if the blasted animal was anywhere below her. No such luck – the taller, thicker trees around them blotted out most of the light, letting only a greenish hue filter through. The ghastly light made Kiyumi feel as if she was underwater, and it wasn't enough to make out her teammate below her, never mind a speeding hell-beast.

Releasing the chakra under her feet, she dropped from the branch, knees bracing to take the impact as she landed in the springy grass in front of her teammate. "I can't see it anywhere."

Yuki nodded, looking entirely disinterested as she turned to regard the trees around them. It was utterly silent, eerily so, with not a birdsong or breeze to disturb the area around them, and Yuki herself made no sound as she ghosted over the slimed pine needles beneath their feet. Kiyumi could only watch her in envy – the noise she'd made blundering through the forest had probably been what startled the wretched cat away in the first place. True, she'd been practically silent by civilian standards, but there was a wide range between civilian and shinobi standards, and Tora was practically a B-rank ninja in his own right, judging by the amount of times he escaped the daimyo's wife.

"We'll have to search the entire forest if we hope to find him. The daimyo's wife must return to her estates by tomorrow, and she wants Tora back by then."

Kiyumi, who had been busy dusting off her scraped hands, looked up in disbelief. "Y'know, we'd find him a lot quicker if you'd use your bloody Byakugan-"

Yuki sniffed in disdain, leaving not a leaf disturbed as she swept over the forest floor. "Quicker, perhaps, but I have no desire to experience another headache. I have been using it all day-"

"It was less than five hours! I know you're not that good at it, but can't you-"

Yuki paused, her dark hair silvered in the moonlight as she turned her blank white eyes on her teammate. When her voice came, it was colder than the snow she was named for. "I've used it enough today. Awaken your own bloodline first before you start telling me how to use mine."

A poisonous retort flew to Kiyumi's lips, and it was only with the greatest effort that she tampered it down. Jin-sensei had already lectured her enough about her inability to get on with Kegawa; she didn't need problems with Yuki too. She forced out a laugh instead, even as her hands darted to her eyes, the eyes she knew would be utterly black in the dim light, without so much as a flicker of a sharingan to brighten them. "Don't worry, my aunt's already on my case about it. You're right - I can't even work my own bloodline, I shouldn't judge."

She'd meant for it to sound light-hearted, but even she could hear the bitterness seeping into the words. Yuki obviously heard it too, judging by the awkward look she gave Kiyumi, and her own nervous gesture towards the headband that covered the poisonous green design on her pale skin. There were few that knew better about the downsides of being in a clan than the branch Hyuuga, and Yuki's own weak Byakugan range had to needle her as sorely as Kiyumi's lack of the sharingan.

The return to normal conversation was the closest they'd ever get to apologising. Yuki's voice was soft as she replied "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. We couldn't catch him with all three of us here in the daylight. I suppose we'll just have to wait until he gets tired."

Kiyumi nodded, wincing as she ran a hand through her mane of wild black hair. It had looked half-way decent in the morning, but an hour of tracking Tora through the trees had left it tangled and sticky with sap from where she'd blundered into a particularly nasty thicket. Yuki's hair, of course, was still in its elaborately coiled plait, the faint starlight glinting off her jeweled hair-pins and the mirror-bright shine of her headband, her kimono as pristinely white as when she'd put it on this morning. Kiyumi would never admit it, but she'd kill to have just half of Yuki's grace and delicacy, even if her teammate was an arrogant cow most of the time.

Yuki glanced up at the sky as they walked, which was rapidly lightening to the red-pink of salmon-flesh. "If we want to get it back by daybreak, we need to hurry."

Kiyumi raised an eyebrow, carefully skirting a suspicious-looking burrow. "If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears."

Yuki considered. "We could try laying bait?"

"We tried that before. It didn't work."

"Well...in retrospect, perhaps it wasn't a good idea to let Kegawa handle the fish."

"Not a good idea? His dog _**ate**_ them! And then vomited everywhere!"

Yuki let out a sigh of irritation, carefully ducking under an overhanging branch. The trees seemed to thicker here, pressing closer and closer to the narrow path they'd been sticking to. "Well, put it this way. At least we know another weakness of the Inuzuka now, weaknesses that we can use against him when we spar next."

"Are you going to fight Setsuna and Kegawa with _fish_?"

Yuki frowned, and Kiyumi remembered belatedly how she hated being made fun of. "Well, if you have any-"

A scream split the air, low and agonized as it tore towards them. The two girls froze, and another cry came, the scream of a man in utter terror and pain – until, suddenly, it was cut off in an awful finality.

Her heart thudding in her chest, Kiyumi's hand darted to the sword at her side, but Yuki was faster. Her hands flying into seals, she faced the direction of the scream with a look of grim determination. "_Byakugan_!"

A spiderweb of veins bulged around her eyes, and Kiyumi tensed, already drawing her sword. "What is it? What's happened?"

But Yuki only stared ahead in horror, her mouth gaped open in an almost comical display of shock. Any other time, Kiyumi might have found her expression hilarious, but here, in the forest of screams, it chilled her to the bone. She grabbed Yuki's arm with her spare hand, shaking her when she received no reaction. "What is it?"

"It's..." Yuki's voice trembled, and she turned a look of horrified disbelief to Kiyumi. "It's a _child_."

"There's a hurt _kid_?"

She needed no further answers; letting go of Yuki, Kiyumi turned and raced for the source of the screams, realising with a sickening jolt that she could smell blood as she flung herself through the trees. If making her way through the forest had been difficult before, it was nearly impossible now; weaves of vines, thorny and tangled, lashed her even as she tried to duck underneath them, the path narrowed further and disappeared completely against the thicket of trees, and the sharp-scented leaves thickened and spread until she was using her ears and not her eyes to fight her way through the mesh of woods. She could hear something as she struggled – a faint, gasping sobbing, a whimper that was more like that of a wounded animal than a human child. Awful as it was to listen to, the sound gave Kiyumi hope – if they were still conscious, if they could make a noise, they might not be too badly injured to be moved. If she and Yuki could only be quick enough, they could find them, get them back to the village before the guards changed, and take them to the hospital...

Careful as she was, she almost missed the kid, only the faintest flash of gold catching her eye. She ducked again, wincing as a particularly spiky bough tugged at her hair, and then...there he was.

The kid – _a boy, someone's little boy – _sat curled in the hollow of an enormous pine tree, the largest that Kiyumi had ever seen. Its bark, a startling white, seemed to curve almost almost protectively around the kid, the large fissure that sheltered him a rippled red-black, oozing with a dark, thick sap apart from a small patch of white that was probably a bit of moss. Sending a silent prayer of thanks, Kiyumi dropped to her knees, reaching out towards him as he sobbed quietly into his knees.

"Hey, are you OK? Don't worry, everything's fine, we've come to-"

At the sound of her voice, his head snapped out, and Kiyumi found herself staring into a pair of wide, terrified blue eyes. With a muffled shriek, the boy scrambled further back into the tree, and as Kiyumi tried to reach out, her hand snagged on a spiked weed that suddenly twisted out of nowhere. She let out a pained yelp, wincing as she felt the scratch and the warm wetness of her blood. The boy poked his head out, and to Kiyumi's bewilderment, she saw that there were more vines draped around his limbs – and where had they come from, in this tangled thicket of trees? - only, they weren't sticking to him, they were _moving_, rearing up to face her like a Suna cobra.

"D-don't come near me!"

Kiyumi held up her hands, hoping he couldn't see the blood trickling over her palm. The kid was obviously scared – and hurt, if the stench of blood was any indication. She had to get him back to Konoha, and soon, but it was going to difficult if he was too petrified to come. Softening her voice as much as she could, she extended a hand, watching as the vines stiffened around him in their parody of an embrace - and what the hell was happening, that the ordinary plants she'd always known were acting like that?

"My name's Uchiha Kiyumi. I'm a genin from Konoha – you're from there as well, right?"

He stared at her for a long moment, while the leaves around her rustled in warning. She tried to keep the warm smile on a face, and he gave a barely perceptible nod. Kiyumi took that as a good sign. "What's your name?"

For a moment, it seemed as if he wouldn't answer. Then-

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Kiyumi stiffened. She had heard that name before, usually followed by a round of cursing. As best as she could tell, the adults all disliked him for something, but they would never explain what - only that she should stay away from him. Kiyumi had never been given a personal reason to dislike the kid - hell, she hadn't even seen him before - but she normally tried to be an obedient niece, and so had stayed away.

But this was different. He was obviously nothing more than a scared child, one that needed help, and she wasn't going to leave him here for a reason that no one would explain. "Naruto, huh? That's a nice name."

He stared at her, looking disbelieving. "Huh?"

"Yup. It's more interesting than mine." A bit weird, being named after a ramen topping, but maybe his parents had been big fans of the stuff. "Like I said, Naruto, I'm a genin" - she gave the band knotted around her arm a tap, and his gaze flickered quickly over it - "and I can bring you back to the village. I'm sure your..."

Parents? Did he have any? Kiyumi could not recall hearing about any other Uzumakis – and what sort of parent would have let their kid wander around in the forest in the dead of night? However, she could remember hearing her aunt complain about the Sandaime being a soft touch on "that awful, filthy child" - perhaps the two knew each other?

"The Hokage," she tried again, feeling hopeful at the look of the recognition in Naruto's eyes. "My friend and I will take you back to the Hokage. He'll make sure you're safe, OK?"

The child seemed to consider this. "Really?"

Kiyumi nodded, holding out her arms. "Really. But first, you're going to have to let me help you." She eyed the vines, and felt profoundly disturbed as they, with a palpable look of reluctance, withdrew from the kid, their thorns scraping against the bark of the tree. "Can you come out?"

Slowly, Naruto crawled forward, and she leaned forward, ready to lift him up. To her bewilderment, he collapsed against her instead, his eyes falling shut.

Kiyumi carefully lifted him up into an awkward carry, settling him against her hip like she had seen some Uchiha mothers carrying their own children. She didn't know how old he was – four? Five? - but he was lighter than she'd expected, and she was pretty sure she could carry him back to the gates at least.

"_**Kiyumi!**_"

The Uchiha looked up to see Yuki appear in the clearing, her chest heaving as she stared down at Kiyumi with wild white eyes. Kiyumi glared at her, trying to shift Naruto in a more comfortable position. It was hardly pleasant, finding a child lost alone in the woods, but she didn't see what Yuki had found so terrible about it. At least the kid was safe now. "'Bout time you showed up. We need to go, he just fell asleep...I don't know what's wrong with him..."

"Kiyumi." Yuki's voice volume had lowered considerably, but it was trembling still, and Kiyumi could detect the panic that was threatening to overwhelm the Hyuuga. "Put him down."

Kiyumi stared at her, hardly able to believe her ears. She knew that people disliked the kid, and perhaps she normally wouldn't be around him - but what cause had Yuki to look at him with such...well, fear? Had she even met him before?

"Excuse me? Look at him. He's exhausted, he's asleep, he's probably got hypothermia, we need to get him back – the kami know what's happened to him-"

"I think I know what's happened," said Yuki, and she stepped close enough for Kiyumi to see the fear in her pale eyes. "Kiyumi, turn around, and _look _at what he's _done_."

Startled, Kiyumi twisted around, staring at the tree behind her. It stood motionless, bark red and sticky with sap...apart from that one patch of white that Kiyumi had assumed was moss.

Slowly, she drew closer, scarcely able to believe her eyes as the object finally came into focus and she saw what the tree was hiding.

It was a hand. A human hand, jutting from the tree, and the blood dripped thick and black from its wrist.

Kiyumi staggered back in shock, and then it was Yuki's turn to move forward, Yuki to prise at the bark, until it came away red and dripping to reveal the crushed, distended face of what had once been a man, the red ruin of his mouth fixed open forever in a final, silent scream.

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Mokuton Child**

**Kishimoto owns Naruto, acepro evolution owns the original idea to the plot. I'm just mucking around in their sandpit. **

Doing her best to stay calm, Yuki carefully dropped the bark she had just wrenched from the tree, shuddering as she looked at the sticky red residue it had left on her fingers. Kiyumi stayed where she was, staring up at the body in the tree with an expression blank with shock, while her arms still cradled the child that had caused it.

Yuki stared at him, remembering where she had seen him before. It was Uzumaki Naruto, the prankster, the troublemaker, the one every parent told their child to stay away from. No Hyuuga would have dreamed of associating with him - too poor, too grubby, too bent on chaos - and Yuki's clan had specifically warned her that the child was not to be trusted. How many times had Yuki, passing by on missions or free time, seen the child race laughing through the village, followed by an enraged victim of his pranks, or sitting alone, staring longingly as other children played? A lonely child, perhaps - and for the sake of her clan, Yuki had squashed any sympathy that began to emerge from that - and not one to be seen with, but…his pranks were always annoying, but never seemed malicious. Even looking at him now, a small and skinny child with spiky yellow hair and a grubby T-shirt - it seemed almost comical to imagine him being able to swat a fly, never mind actually hurt anything.

But Yuki couldn't find anything to laugh about now.

"I know him," Kiyumi croaked at last, the pallor on her face matching that of the corpse in the tree. It was a man, with greying hair and bulging eyes still tinted red from his now inert sharingan, mouth and nostrils wet with blood, his features twisted grotesquely by that last, frozen scream. His distorted face looked barely human, never mind someone Yuki could recognise, but Kiyumi's face had drained to the colour of soured milk as she stared up at him. "That's...that's Senzai. _Officer _Senzai. He's...He was a friend of my uncle, h-he works in the police-"

She stopped, apparently beginning to register exactly what this meant, that this was someone she knew, someone who had died horribly and for a reason that neither of the two wanted to think about, and turned away, looking violently ill. Yuki couldn't blame her - she was fighting the urge to be sick herself - but she tried to push aside her own shock, tried to think properly.

That was what they had praised her for in the academy, even above the taijutsu skills that were her birthright as a Hyuuga. She viewed things in a clinical manner, she mapped out scenarios and followed the rules they set up. Her Byakugan was weak, she could admit that (if only to herself) and where taijutsu had failed her, she turned to her brain and tried to work with that instead. It hadn't helped her with making friends, even with her prestigious clan name behind her, and that was why they'd thrown her on a team with Kiyumi, Kiyumi whom she'd known since they were crawling around in that old nursery together, Kiyumi who was as bad with the Uchiha's prized genjutsu as Yuki was with her clan's taijutsu style, a disgrace to her clan's name, who wielded a sword and spat fire jutsu but had no sharingan of her own, the one person that didn't try to force Yuki into the mould of the flawless Hyuuga she should be.

Kiyumi was the closest thing that Yuki had ever had to a friend, and words hadn't been able to describe the sickening lurch of fear Yuki had felt when she saw who she was carrying and just what he had done.

The Byakugan, her greatest asset, and in some ways, her ultimate curse - because it was her kekkei genkai that gave the Hyuuga the right to brand her with the curse mark and condemn her to a lifetime of servitude - had seen the buried corpse right away, seen the body that was even now mostly hidden in the heart of the tree, seen the crushed bones, the pulped flesh, seen the blood pooling at the roots of the tree. It had seen the child cowering at the foot of the tree, seen the blood soaking him despite the absence of any wounds, seen her teammate rush towards him without any idea of what she was heading to.

But that was not all they had seen.

There was chakra lingering in the tree, chakra that blazed bright and blue - the same chakra running through the coils of the child in Kiyumi's arms, mingling with the pale yellow-green chakra that had sustained the tree from the moment it began life. And what it had done with that boost of chakra...

There were roots coiled around the remains of the Uchiha's arms and legs, and just through tracing the lingering remains of the chakra in the air, Yuki could figure out what had happened. The man had been yanked into the very heart of the tree, and enfolded over by the trunk, the red ruin of his flesh lanced through and drawn up, leeched of all it contained until there was only a pink-white mess to stain the hollowed out black. He had been utterly devoured, and by a tree that had cradled a small child in its roots, the bright blood of the Uchiha staining his golden hair.

Yuki didn't know of any jutsu that could do that, and Uzumaki was a clanless orphan according to the older branch members who had swiftly cut off any other questions about the strange child, even the queries of the clan heiress. There was no way that he should have been able to get access to jutsu that were strong enough to, to _destroy _an adult like that, never mind a full-grown Uchiha - and Yuki didn't even want to think about what the man had been doing with the child in a forest in the middle of the night in the first place. She didn't know if Uzumaki had parents, but surely there were guardians, someone to care for him and to keep him from being in such areas. If this hadn't been a deliberate attack, then perhaps it had been an accident, a lashing out of power that couldn't be controlled. But that would normally happen only in bloodlines, and the user would have to be in such stress that they instinctively reach for that which they could not handle...

But right now, none of that mattered. What did was that Uzumaki, already a suspicious child, was definitely a witness, if not an outright suspect, in the death of an Uchiha, a police officer to boot, and a member of that same prestigious clan happened to be holding him. Even if he was unconscious, Kiyumi could still be in danger from him, and Yuki would not let this child do that same harm to her teammate.

"Kiyumi, _put him down_."

The Uchiha turned to look at her, but Yuki got the sense that she wasn't really seeing her. The girl's face was completely white, and her eyes were wide, shocked. Only her arms stayed put, still supporting Uzumaki, who looked deceptively innocent, with his golden hair and chubby cheeks, eyes shut as his head lolled against Kiyumi's neck. Her shock was no surprise, even if they had both already had their first kill, on a border patrol over by Grass - these kill had been unnatural even by shinobi standards, absolutely horrible, and it had been someone that Kiyumi had known, nothing like the would-be infiltrators that they had killed quickly and quietly and sobbed over for hours afterwards. But they could still be in danger, and they had to **_do something._**

_"Kiyumi."_

Kiyumi shook her head, as if she was trying to shake the scene away. "I...Oh, _fuck_, I...What the...How did this happen?"

"I don't know," Yuki said, swallowing as she deactivated her Byakugan - because even though she was a ninja and a Hyuuga, she was also a twelve year old girl, and the wrecked corpse was far worse than the thieves that had died quickly and cleanly when she tapped their throats. Even without the sight, she could feel nausea bubbling up inside her, the picture of that ruined body refusing to leave her mind. "But I know that he's got something to do with it. Put him down, Kiyumi, _please_."

Kiyumi stared in bewilderment at the child in her arms, the blood caked on him drying into brown stains. "What? You think that he did this? Yuki...he's just a child..."

"I - maybe..."

Kiyumi shook her head, still cradling the child, obviously trying not to look up. "Yuki...You didn't see him...He was terrified...I don't think he could have done...done _that._"

Yuki wanted to disagree, to tell Kiyumi that it was only logical for him to be terrified after doing something like that - because the repercussions for killing Uchiha, and members of the police no less were certainly severe - but only shook her head. "Let's take him back to the village."

* * *

The sun had risen, washing the sky in a gentle ripple of gold. Looking at it through the window as he shook his hands out, joints popping and crackling as he stretched them, Sarutobi found it quite pleasing to see. There were few benefits to having to stay up all night to finish paperwork, but the brilliant sunrise would always be one of them. It reminded him of his time as a young man, on missions with Homura and Koharu, when he keep watch through the night until daybreak. Easier times, perhaps happier ones, but he would not allow himself to be drawn into nostalgia, that oft-sprung trap for the old. Instead, Sarutobi laid down the last of his paperwork with a pleased sigh. At last, after more than four hours of non-stop toiling, he had finally finished every last piece, as well as getting through that supremely unnecessary council meeting (why the Uchiha had to hammer out yet another law for the civilians to obey when there were already too many for even the Military Police to remember without aid of the sharingan was beyond the Sandaime). He glanced at the clock on the wall. There was just enough time to have a pleasant smoke before heading to the Hokage mansion and finally getting some sleep-

"Hokage-sama!"

-unless the universe decided to once again prove that it genuinely hated all Hokages and interrupt him.

Resisting the urge to weep in frustration, Sarutobi looked up. Standing in the doorway was an ANBU, their face covered by an eagle mask. "An Uchiha has been murdered, Hokage-sama. Uchiha Senzai, a member of the Military Police."

A flood of ice raced through the Sandaime's veins. Tensions had been building over the Uchiha, and talks with them becoming akin to waving flint in front of a powder keg. If one of their own had been taken, and a police officer to boot, it might be enough to provide that fatal spark. "Where? And who were the perpetrators?"

"The forest, Hokage-sama. A team has already been sent to retrieve the remains. And..."

The ANBU paused, and Sarutobi could sense his hesitation. "...and Uzumaki Naruto was found at the scene of the crime."

Sarutobi stared at the ANBU coldly, even as his heart sank. "Explain."

"Two genin found him by the base of a tree, frightened and severely depleted of chakra. And...Hokage-sama. The body was found within the tree itself, having been pulled in there after the flora was manipulated by chakra - chakra that that clearly corresponds to that of Uzumaki. It...it bears a strong resemblance to Tenzou-san's jutsu."

"_What?_"

* * *

There was a few things that Naruto was vaguely aware of as he floated in a sea of white, curled up close into himself. There was an odd knocking sound, _rat-a-tat-tat _against his ears, the acrid stink of cleaning fluids like they used in the orphanage, an annoying beeping, and, insistently muscling against his thoughts, was a faint...tugging, something pulling really hard at his thoughts, until all he could focus on was the sensation of it. It was annoying, and Naruto screwed his eyes shut. He _liked_ it here, in the soft white blankness, where it was warm and safe. He didn't _want_ to leave.

"Naruto?"

Part of Naruto wanted to ignore the voice, which seemed kind and sorta familiar, but it seemed to late. The whiteness was disappearing, replaced with the warm darkness of his closed eyelids. He groaned half-heartedly, wishing they could stay closed, but even he knew that now he had to wake up.

Slowly, the young boy opened his eyes. He was lying on a narrow bed in a small room with whitewashed walls, and he realised as he looked around that it was probably a hospital of some kind. The beeping noises had come from some monitors that were sitting to one side, flashing red and green lights, while the knocking noise came from a fan in a corner, its constant droning interrupted by its blades rattling against warped metal. A small window was mostly blocked by a withered sunflower in a cheerful yellow pot that was brighter than its petals. Strips of light were plastered to the wall, and they were so bright that Naruto screwed up his eyes as he looked at them. But he didn't looked for long, because next to the bed was a chair, and sitting in that was someone Naruto was actually happy to see.

"Jiji!"

The old man smiled, though even Naruto could see that it didn't reach his eyes. He was in his long Hokage robes, with his hat perched on his head, and Naruto wondered briefly why he was in the room when the few times Naruto saw him had been in his office. "Hello, Naruto. I'm glad to see you're finally awake. I was quite worried about you."

Naruto struggled to sit up, feeling confused. Awake? He didn't remember falling asleep...

_-The man walking towards him, his eyes red as blood-_

_-Kunai flashing through the air-_

_-Looking for somewhere to run, but there wasn't any and he was coming with a knife-_

_-Cornered, with nowhere to go-_

_-Praying for something, anything to help-_

_-A sudden creaking noise-_

_-Blood-_

_-"-keep you safe, I promise-"_

_-Falling_

Naruto stiffened, his memories clicking into place. He'd...He'd killed that guy?

_'I can't have - I didn't mean to-'_

But he had. He had killed him, the tree had, it had done what he'd wanted, what he'd asked, and he didn't know it would happen, but now the old man was going to punish him, maybe even kill him like he had, and it wasn't his fault and he hadn't mean't to do it-

A loud rattle cut through his thoughts, and he looked up, confused. The sunflower in the window was swaying, its petals flexing like an opened fist, its stalk crackling as it moved, twisting through the air towards him. Before Naruto's bewildered eyes, it draped itself over his shoulder, small brown seeds dusting against his shirt as it rubbed itself against him like a cat.

He looked over at the old man for answers, but he just gave a small sigh. "I thought...I was _afraid_ as much. But do not worry, Naruto. You are not in trouble, for once in your life."

Naruto stared at him, shoulders heaving. "Jiji, I didn't-"

"I know," the Sandaime said as soothingly as he could. "I know that you would not have just attacked that man, Naruto. But now...I need you to tell me what happened."

* * *

Despite the Sandaime's best efforts, he had only managed to gets bits and pieces of the story from Naruto. However, it was enough for him to pierce the truth together - and thus give him the answers of what to do next.

An ANBU materialized with a swirl of leaves next to him as he left the hospital room, the man's porcelain mask not quite hiding the hesitation he clearly felt when confronted with the Sandaime's visible anger. "Your will, Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi gritted his teeth, fingers flexing as if he wanted to start firing off some of his more damaging jutsus and was managing to abstain only by the skin of his teeth. "Tell Ibiki that his efforts into the Uchiha clan must double. I want to know exactly what Uchiha Senzai's motives might have been and to determine whether he truly was acting alone."

"His wife died," the ANBU said quietly. "In the Kyuubi's attack. Surely..."

"Surely that was motive enough? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. None the less, my orders stand - but be sure to be sensitive. The Uchiha are going to be out for blood over this."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

The Sandime rubbed his face wearily. The attack had been a little too calculated for his liking. Stalking a child through a dark forest wasn't quite the impulsive act of a drunken, desperate man, but nor was it out of the range for a ninja bent on revenge. And they would have to tread carefully as they could around the Uchiha. Fugaku had become increasingly belligerent in council meetings, and Sarutobi did not like the mutterings that were being passed through to him by certain individuals. A false accusation could destroy what little progress had been made on that front. Still, something about it didn't sit quite right with him. He would simply have to rely on Ibiki in this matter...yet there was more that must be done.

"I don't want this getting out before it has to. Have the genin who retrieved him sent to my office, and make sure that they understand that they are not to breath a word about this to anyone if they don't want instant demotion. And contact Jiraiya. There is much that we have to discuss."

The ANBU disappeared in a swirl of leaves, and the Sandaime closed his eyes. _Uzumaki Naruto, the inheritor of the Mokuton. This will be...interesting._

**A few people asked about pairings...truthfully, nothing's decided yet, and when I do, it won't be for a few more years in the story - Naruto is six, after all. Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Mokuton Child**

**Kishimoto owns Naruto, I'm just playing around with the characters.**

A storm was coming to Konoha, and its harbinger lay thick in the air; a heavy blanket of humidity that seemed to press down on all those walking the streets in a smothering embrace, prickling the skin into a chill of cold sweat. Few figures were hurrying through the gauze of smoke-grey fog clinging wetly to the cobbles; the weather seemed to carry its own note of warning that kept all but the most urgent business indoors.

The Uchiha district was no exception to this; civilians and shinobi of the clan alike had long since hastened inside their homes, although whether it was the darkening sky that had prompted this or another matter altogether was hard to say. Not hours before, a sudden meeting of the elders had been called, and with it came a sense of panic that had flared through the clan like wildfire, despite the fact that none knew exactly what was being discussed. There was only the sense of inescapable dread that had sent the rest of the Uchiha inside their houses, shutters bolted firmly against the high sharp wind that keened against the wood like a knife scraped over stone, and none would dare to even look at the clan head's house where the elders had been summoned.

Although by far the most opulent of the district, the luxury of the house could barely be seen through the gloom of the weather, with barely a flicker of light present behind windows that had been locked and blinds drawn even before the first cloud had been seen on the horizon. The children of the house were both away, and an oppressive silence seemed to reign through the empty rooms, most of which being utterly gloomy without sound or light to cheer them. Yet movement flickered in the study of the clan head; there was a warm light that glowed through the screens of the room as if it were a paper latern, and with it came the sound of urgent voices.

"-told you it would not work."

"It should have done. Damn Senzai for a fool – if he had only followed instructions-"

"Hold your tongue. Senzai-san knew what had to be done, and he was willing to give his life for the good of the clan. Do not mock his sacrifice – he made it clear that he knew exactly what he had to do and when. We must have been misinformed – the demon must have had guards after all. We were simply not prepared."

A crack sounded as a hand was slammed against a table. "Then we _should _have been! This was a vital operation, one that needed every care to be taken, every method availiable used to ensure its success! Now more than ever must we rely on our own intelligence about the village, now must we use only the strength of our own ninja, and you tell me that the most crucial operation at hand has been blown because _no one checked if there were __**guards?**_"

There came the clinking of porcelain against wood, the clearing of a throat. "Guards were checked for. Our friends in the Hokage Tower even examined the rota and questioned the secretary through genjutsu. The child has been without guards since the first three years of his life; it was the obscurity of the orphanage that the Sandaime relied on to protect him. Something must have gone wrong, but it was not the fault of Senzai or any others who helped to prepare him. And with respect, I would not call it our most crucial operation. Its failure is a disappointment, certainly, but it changes little. There are many points of weakness within the village that can and will be targeted, but many can be dealt with once the main operation has succeeded. I want the demon dead as much as any other, but the threat is not so urgent at this time. The jinchuuriki is still a child."

"A child that demolished a full-grown Uchiha! If the Sandaime unleashes him-"

"He will not. Sarutobi is a fool, and a soft one besides. He will not use the demon when it hides in a child not even in the academy. Do you not recall how he fought against Itachi's ascension as a ninja? It does not sit well with him to use children in battle, not when he likes to play the part of Konoha's doting grandfather. In war, he will shed their blood freely and not offer a tear, but peace has been his undoing. He will not bring himself to use a child as a weapon."

"You call that weakness," said a new voice, "but the old monkey is cunning. Our clan burns anew where the Senju withered, and Itachi is the brightest flame of all. Sarutobi robs our youth of their glory, presses them down to the level of the other clans, holds them back in the academy when they could be striding forth on the battlefield, bringing honour and fear to the Uchiha name. He cripples us, and we call him blind for doing so. Do not delude yourself. He may cling to peace, but push him and he will unleash a firestorm. The Kyuubi is loyal to him, and he will use it if necessary. Senzai was only the first that will fall to its power."

"We do not even know how Senzai died. More likely that there was an ANBU lurking to watch over the child and he was dispatched as soon as he moved to slay it. There is no reason to think that it was any action of the Kyuubi's that defeated him. We do not even know if the beast _can _be unleashed. The Yondaime's seal was of his own design, and has not been used before or since. It was a seal of desperation besides, not to craft a weapon. It could well be that the Kyuubi is locked entirely within its prison, and cannot access its old power at all."

"You can't rely on that. It takes only the smallest amount of chakra for the beast to wield great power. Suna's jinchuuriki is the same age as the brat, and they say the entire village cowers away from him! And that is only the Ichibi, the weakest of the bijuu. If one tail's worth of chakra is enough to bring grown ninja to their knees, imagine what the Kyuubi could do!"

"You sound like you envy the beast's power." The speaker sounded amused, ignoring the indignant splutter of the previous man. "I for one see no danger. If the vessel was grown, I would agree that it would be in the interests of the clan to remove him before anything further could be done, but as it stands, the Kyuubi is powerless for now and likely to remain that way. The Sandaime was a fool to not utilise him as the other villages did their own jinchuuriki, but his loss is our strength, and I see no reason to defend against what cannot strike at us. Our aim should be on the village itself. Senzai died in the attempt, and did not have the chance to be interrogated, but the Sandaime will be looking for answers. Already, the suspicion is on us."

"Why should it be? They have no proof of any other involvement. Senzai's wife perished in the attack, of course he would wish to avenge her. Perhaps the whereabouts of the child were not widely known when he was an infant, but any could have followed the brat home and discovered his location; it would not take a conspiracy to be able to attack the vessel. And anyone around the village would be able to tell the ANBU that Senzai spent the day trawling through bars, probably barely able to walk by the end of it. A desperate attempt at revenge whilst under the influence of alcohol. Regrettable, but nothing to do with us."

"The matter should come to us, anyway," someone snapped. "It is a domestic incident; it falls under the purveyance of the police. We have dealt with our own before, they know it is our right. If the Sandaime truly wished for the Uchiha to reconcile with the village, he would give the case to us, not toss it to the ANBU."

"As if the Sandaime would miss a chance to flaunt his power over us. Have you not seen our records? All the cases are flooding away to his dogs in the ANBU; he means to weaken both our ninja and our prestige while he pretends confusion at our attempts to regain our positions. No, Uzumaki's attack will go to the ANBU, and he will expect us to cooperate, to be as docile as dogs if we don't want to risk his whip. But it doesn't matter. Senzai acted alone, to avenge the loss of his beloved wife. None can prove otherwise. Our hands are clean in this."

A murmur of agreement rippled through the air, but one speaker was still unconvinced. "Sarutobi will still suspect. He will watch and wait and then-"

"Let him watch. Senzai's failure is unfortunate, but Uzumaki is still a child, and Sarutobi can only grasp at shadows. He is old now, his power waning with every day that passes. Leave the Kyuubi alone for now. Itachi reports nothing new, and all is progressing as it should be. We have better places to focus our strength, and when the time comes, better ninja to wield it."

* * *

Yuki and Kiyumi's original plan had been to take Naruto straight to the hospital, despite Yuki's assertion that he had no injuries that he could see and was merely suffering from a bad cause of chakra exhaustion. Yuki had received some basic training in the arts of medical ninjutsu (someone had to patch Kegawa up when the fool blundered into trouble, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be Kiyumi, who was generally responsible for it) and knew that there was little that could be done for it other than rest and the avoidance of further jutsus until recovery. However, Naruto clearly needed to be taken care of, and, short of dropping him outside the Hokage's office, they knew of no other place where he could go. The hospital seemed the best choice, although there had been little discussion between the two of them about it – Kiyumi was still shocked into silence by what they had seen. Yuki was too busy thinking about what it had meant.

However, upon arriving at the gates and explaining what had happened, things spun out of their control very quickly. They were hastily pulled into the village by the chunin guards, who demanded explanations while staring with hostile eyes at the child Kiyumi held (and how Yuki had bristled at the implications that they were behind Naruto's state). No sooner had they explained what had happened again when an ANBU, their face hidden by a dog mask, showed up and plucked him from Kiyumi's arms, unceremoniously ordering them back to their homes. The guards agreed, telling them that their mission was complete, and shooing them alone as if they were Academy students, not fully-fledged ninja in their own right, while the ANBU vanished in a swirl of leaves, taking Naruto with him.

No sooner had they been ordered to leave, however, when Tora suddenly came sauntering over the gate, apparently bored of his outing into the forest. Barely had the cat had a chance to realise just what a bad place he had picked when Yuki struck, her Byakugan pinpointing the perfect spot for a two-palm strike to Tora's skull. In her frustration, she perhaps might have applied more chakra than was strictly necessary, sending a vicious strike into the brain's tenkatsu that left Tora stunned and his fur faintly smoking. The possibility of brain damage increased each time someone received such a blow to the head, but knowing Tora for as long as she had, Yuki could not of anyone who would notice or care.

Kiyumi, still visibly shaken, volunteered to take the cat to the Hokage's office, where it could be returned to the aides of the daimyo's wife. Yuki thought about accompanying her, but eventually decided against it. The excuse she gave to Kiyumi was that she wanted to return home and fall straight asleep, but the truth was that she wanted to think, and somehow, it felt horribly traitorous to Kiyumi to be doing so whilst her team-mate walked obliviously next to her.

Uzumaki Naruto. A prankster, a troublemaker, a filthy boy with neither name nor family. But a harmless child for all that, and one that Yuki could feel the faintest stirrings of pity for, so clearly bereft was he of anyone to care for him. For all that the adult figures in her life muttered about him – even Sensei's face had been shadowed when Naruto ran by – she had never heard of him doing direct harm to anyone.

So one would an Uchiha, a police officer no less, want to kill him?

The question plagued Yuki all the way home, but no matter what she thought, she could get no answer that made sense. With the gradually dissolution of the Senju, the Uchiha had become Konoha's most prominent clan – second only to the Hyuuga, she added hastily to her thoughts- and they were proud of that legacy. They were quick to anger, and clung to their grievances with the passion of a thousand flaming suns – Kiyumi still held grudges born in the first year of the Academy – but she could not think of any prank Naruto could have pulled, any insult he could have given, to prompt one of them to hunt down a small boy in the middle of the night for slaughter. She had seen the kunai, she had smelt the sickly salt of blood on earth. Uchiha Senzai, Kiyumi's blood-kin, had tried to murder a little boy, and the consequences had not even begun to unfold.

The sunrise had flushed the sky red and gold by the time Yuki arrived on the Hyuuga grounds, her posture stiff with the effort to keep from drooping over. The events of the evening – morning now, actually – were dragging at her, and all she could think of was her futon, ready and waiting in her room. Even the yellow-brown mud stains at the hem of her robes, bright and pungent as rotten yolk, only elicited the faintest of shudders where once she would have immediately headed for the baths.

Instead, the Hyuuga went to the room that she shared with three other branch maidens, peeling off her clothes with a sigh of distaste as she saw the marks Tora had left upon them. If ever she had regretted being too forceful with the cat (she hadn't) then the sight of the muddy paw-prints and obstinate cat hairs on the once fine white cloth cleared her conscience immediately. Dropping the clothes in the laundry basket, she pulled on a sleeping robe, the sight of her futon filling her with immense gladness as she prepared to collapse on it and just forget about trees and Uchiha and little boys with terrified blue eyes until it was time to get up to meet her team for training-

The door clicked open with an urgency belied by the quietness of the motion. Startled, Yuki turned her head and saw Haruka, one of her many cousins slide around the wood and into the room, blank eyes alive with concern and a fearful curiosity that only a fellow Hyuuga would be able to see. Her tone was clipped, composed, but the edge of panic could not be entirely hidden under the polished words. "You must come, Yuki. There is an ANBU inside the compound - he wants you to leave with him, immediately."

Yuki let the quilt she had just drawn back fall onto the mattress as she stared at the older girl in confusion. "What?"

"They want you to come right away - they were going to come barging in until Tokuma-kun managed to make them wait for a few moments..." Despite her obvious worry, Haruka was obviously indignant at the idea of even an ANBU daring to barge into the Hyuuga compound. "You must go to them, at once. "

A sharp-toothed creature of terror coiled in Yuki's stomach, sinking its icy fangs into her spine. She could think of only one thing that the ANBU would want to speak to her about...but they surely couldn't think that she had had anything to do with it, no, they couldn't blame **her**-

Words would not come to her open mouth; she could only gesture at her garments, dimly registering in her mind that this was a small thing to think about at this time. "But I'm not even _dressed-_"

With a noise of great irritation, Haruka snatched a plain white robe from the open wardrobe, tossing it over Yuki's head. "Just hurry up and pull that on! If they're going to interrogate you, they won't care what you wear!"

Were it not for the robe muffling her voice, Yuki would have pointed out that _she _would care, for interrogation by Konoha's famed Torture and Interrogation Force would be bad enough without being in her sleepwear when it happened. However, no sooner was the robe over her head when Haruka seized her cousin by the arm and dragged her out of the room, her grip tighter than steel. "Come _on_. You're just lucky that Hiashi-sama isn't in the compound. He'll want to know what happened once he returns, of course, as long as Uchiha Fugaku doesn't keep him for too long."

Yanking the robe down, Yuki stared at her cousin, a strange feeling of dread overcoming her. "_Uchiha _Fugaku?"

"Do you know any other? He was supposed to be at a meeting, but he ignored it for some reason, and the clan heads had to reschedule. Hiashi-sama was very angry, but apparently the Uchiha elders are worried about something."

"What?" Yuki breathed, her anxiety over the ANBU forgotten in this sudden fitting of puzzle pieces. "What are they worried about?"

"Who knows with an Uchiha? It must have been bad though, to risk angering Hiashi-sama. You wouldn't think they would have the nerve, would you?"

"No," Yuki lied. The Uchiha would surely have to be caught up in something tremendous to risk their chance at playing politics in the weekly clan meeting – but perhaps tremendous was not the word to use about a small child, cowering under a tree that devoured a corpse. She was tired, her mind could be leaping to conclusions – but if Uchiha Fugaku did have anything to do with an attack on Uzumaki Naruto...well, she wouldn't be surprised if he ended up like his kinsman, hanging in the tree.

* * *

The floorboards of the Hokage tower were old, and they did not belong in the place they lay. They came from trees that no longer grew, in a country that had long since been swallowed up by Grass, and none could remember the name of the flora that produced them, never mind who lay them. But the wood remembered, remembered being coaxed from the earth in a spore of luminous gold chakra that fed and grew them in deep, rich earth, surrounded by alien trees, where their kind had never taken root before. They had unfurled from the loam, roots weaving deep into the earth, buds tipping open in a blaze of colour, in the span of three hours, and three hours they had stood before the axe bit deep into them. Choked under the slippery shine of varnish in some places, muffled by carpet and tatami mats in others, the memory of those few hours of sunlight, of a breeze rich with the scent of cherry blossoms and the promise of rain, was still buried in the grains, known by something without a mind.

So Naruto had no idea in hell how _he _knew it.

Leaving the hospital after the old man had gone had been a problem, not even because of the stupid nurses that kept telling him to eat his yucky medicine when he _told _them he felt fine. The plant that had curled around him when the old man was there had been nice in a way, almost like someone was cuddling him – not that he knew what that was like. But then it wouldn't let **go **of him, even as he scratched and wriggled and called it names that the orphanage staff would smack him for. When he'd finally gotten rid of the stupid thing, somehow with the taste of sunlight on his skin (and he didn't even know how to describe that), one of the people who wore weird masks showed up, and told him that he'd have to go to the old man's office. It was kinda odd, seeing one of those people again - Naruto used to see them all the time when he was younger, 'cause for some reason, they hung around the outside of the orphanage a lot, though they vanished whenever they caught him looking - but now he only really saw them when he went to visit the old man.

It was while walking to the old man's office, the masked guy walking really quickly in front of him, that Naruto first realised something had changed. He had always been able to sense something strange, especially around plants, that everyone acted like he was weird for feeling – but it had suddenly gotten sharper, so much that he almost staggered under the new sense of _knowing _that slammed into his head with the force of a haymaker. The wood was beginning to warp around the edges of the windowsill, where the last memories it held was a small girl with blonde pigtails who had sat there waiting for her grandfather. The floorboards in the main foyer of the building had been set down by three teams of genin twelve years before; they had messed around and actually scratched the wood, and the way they'd slapped filler on top of it set Naruto's teeth on edge. The door to the Hokage's office had no nails within it; it had been a living tree, shaped into the entrance as smoothly as if it had grown there itself, and it still remembered the smiling man that had done it.

It was driving him _mad._

To his disappointment, the old man himself wasn't in the office, although there was a mound of paperwork on the desk already waiting on the desk. Instead, there were two girls standing in front of the door murmuring quietly to each other. Naruto drew closer, curious to know what they were talking about.

The girl on the left, who wore a weird dress that she was clutching tightly to her body was looking at the old man's desk with a furrowed brow. "...cannot believe they sent ANBU to fetch us...shouldn't it have been a police member, if they were just fetching us for the Hokage?"

The other girl, who had long messy black hair and looked oddly familiar, though Naruto couldn't tell much more from facing her back, shook her head. "I haven't got a clue – they were waiting when I showed up to give up the damn cat back. Just said that the Hokage had urgent business with us, and to head straight to his office – would barely let me stay to collect the fur-ball's reward."

"Why? Do you think it's about..."

Naruto must've made some noise he didn't know about, because both girls spun around, their hands flying to the pouches that were looped around their waists or raised in some half-formed seals. Filled with a sudden terror – _kunai flashing in the dark, red eyes staring down at him _- Naruto sprang back, reflexes earned by having to dodge angry prank victims serving him now as he prepared to flee.

Then recognition sparked as he stared up at the black-haired girl, who had also lowered her hand, looking back with an odd look on her face. The girl next to her, who had rather creepy white eyes like the guys who lived in that fancy compound that the old man had warned him to never prank, didn't remove her hand from her weapons, though she seemed to have relaxed a little.

It was Naruto who broke the awkward silence as they stared at each other, offering a smile that was a shadow of his normal cheery grin, but far more cautious. "H-Hi..."

For a moment, the silence continued, as blue eyes fixed on black. Then the girl - Kiyumi, he remembered, that was the name she'd told him before he collapsed without knowing if he'd wake up again - smiled, the first smile that anyone apart from the old man had ever directed at him without doing something mean afterwards. "Naruto, right?"

He nodded, returning her smile with his normal beam. "Kiyumi-chan?"

She laughed, sounding relieved. "Yup, and that's Yuki-chan." She jerked her thumb at the other girl, who stared at her, eyes narrowed, though it was kind of hard to tell, what with them being close to the same shade as her skin. "_Yuki-_**chan**_?"_

Kiyumi laughed again, this time more nervously. "Ahem...We're glad you're okay. There was..." She trailed off, and shook her head. "Anyway, it's good to see that you got out of the hospital."

Naruto nodded eagerly. He really didn't like that place. It stank of that stuff the orphanage staff used to clean the floor, and the nurses wouldn't let him get out of bed until the medic-nins finally said he could go, even though it was obvious that he was fine.

The door opened, and all three of them spun around. Standing in the doorway was the old man, dressed in his hat and long white robes. He had a smile on his face, but Naruto could see that he was also looking kinda...angry. But why?

"I'm pleased to see that all three of you made it. Please, sit down."

Noting absently that Yuki's eyebrow had twitched violently when the old man said that they had 'made it', Naruto slid on to the middle of the three chairs that stood in front of the old man's desk. Immediately, the knowledge that he couldn't even begin to comprehend rushed into his head – the musical notes of the wind rustling through leaves, the scurrying of small creatures through roots and how utterly miniscule they were next to a being that had stood for countless turns of the moon, the pain once sheared from the roots, the memory of a hammer and the rough touch of glue, oil, cloth, blood, the scent of so many that had sat upon the seat, that had curled their fingers around the narrow hand-rests, whose scent and touch still lingered decades after they had gone...

Yuki and Kiyumi sat down more sedately, looking nervous. Naruto didn't know why - the old man was the kindest person in Konoha, and he had always been nice to him when no one else would.

"I've called the three of you here today to discuss what happened last night. I've already heard the story from Naruto, and from some...other sources. However, I would like to get all the facts, from every perspective, which is why I called in all three of you." He folded his hands, looking from one face to another. Naruto shifted uncomfortably. He didn't want to be reminded of that night, even if it was just the old man asking. The memory of that shadowy man, and that relentless feeling of being trapped, of being hunted, was not something he even wanted to go through again.

Next to him, Kiyumi shared a glance with Yuki. There was something...off about the Hokage. While both had been born before the Kyuubi attack, they had been too young to remember much of the Yondaime, apart from a few blurred memories that their imaginations had embellished as time went by, until they didn't know what had happened and what hadn't. The Sandaime had been the kindly figure that it seemed had always watched over the village, guiding and protecting them all. Though they had read about his great feats in history at the academy, and had even seen his picture in the bingo book, they had never really thought of the Sandaime as a fearsome ninja who had killed hundreds over the course of his very long career.

But now, as they sat in front of the Hokage, with that steely glint in his eye, not to mention the stern look on his face that he was directing at them, they were suddenly reminded that this man had been selected to become Hokage for a reason, and that he was the only person who seemed to care for Uzumaki Naruto in the whole of Konoha. And that thanks to the absolute power the kage wielded (oh, they had a council, but a group of civilian and ninja heads, no matter how important individually, could never trumph the Hokage's authority) if he ordered someone to be dragged off and interrogated or even executed if he felt so inclined, then it would be quite easy to scramble up the truth until everything looked perfectly reasonable and justified.

Not that the Hokage had ever abused his power in such a way (or at least to their knowledge, which, as genin, were not much, so...yeah...) but that was still incentive for the two to begin talking about what had happened on that fated trip into the forest, while making sure to emphasize that they had arrived after the attack had happened, had seen and known nothing about it prior to when they had wandered in, chasing Tora, and had been the ones to bring Naruto back safely (Yuki keeping her mouth shut about how she'd have been happy to leave the child in the forest after realizing that he happened to be suspiciously sitting under a tree filled with a mangled corpse).

Naruto didn't listen to the report, both because it was an unpleasant reminder of what had happened, and because it was delivered mainly by Yuki, who, like the rest of her family, had perfected the art of talking in a formal, complicated manner when talking about official business, which was easily understood by the experienced Hokage, but less so by a six year old boy who wasn't even in the academy yet, and her own team-mate, who had managed to skip out on a lot of etiquette lessons by virtue of having no chance in hell of ever needing to deal with the other clans on official levels as the real heirs of the clan and those judged promising enough to marry into other prominent ninja families did. But while Kiyumi merely sat there, a cold, clammy feeling creeping over her skin as she watched the Hokage's expression, Naruto instead let his attention sink into the wood around him.

If the knowledge itching against his skull had been overwhelming when he hadn't been looking for it, it was nothing compared to what he felt now. Understanding rippled through him, of the hundreds who had sat here, some nervous, some excited, some overtaken with awe, some whose brushing of fingers or feet against the chair had been barely registered. There was the chunin with long black hair, who had sat so lightly on the seat that the chair had hardly felt her, though it still recalled the way her fingers had dug into its side when she learned that _Hatake Sakumo _was dead. _Senju Nawaki_'s sunny laugh still resounded through the wood; he had once spilt tea over it and scrubbed frantically to make the stain leave, while _Uzumaki Mito_ sat at her husband's desk, stroking the last thing that he had made before he left her forever. Deeper and deeper he sank, through war-reports and nervous genin, through collapsing ANBU and their quiet relatives, the rasp of kunai against leather, the shifting of new chunin vests against unprepared shoulders, back into the early days, when he had been alive and awake and the shine of his flowers was still there-

Naruto felt the burst of warmth under his fingers, felt the stiffening pain of life returning to limbs that had not felt it in so long, in the way his hands had hurt when he came in from the cold. Still, he was barely aware of exactly what was happening, until he heard a crack that cut through the conversation in the air.

The Sandaime and genin froze, staring at the chair Naruto had been sitting on as the hand-rest shifted under his fingers, new growths splaying out, splintering through the enamel as they trailed out spindly branches with tiny buds of pale pink and red. Before their disbelieving eyes, the tiny cherry blossom branch swayed towards Naruto, loose petals dropping into his lap like priceless jewels. The boy himself stared dumbly at it, hardly able to understand what had just happened.

Suppressing a groan that this had come about again, even as part of him rejoiced in what he knew it meant, Sarutobi gestured for Yuki to continue talking. Looking bewildered, she complied, eventually finishing up with "-and then we brought him to the hospital, Hokage-sama!"

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, sternly regarding the girls in front of him, both of whom were still darting gazes at the overgrown chair in their middle. On one hand, their story corroborated with that of the chunin that they had handed Naruto over to, as well as the boy himself, and they had brought him back safely.

On the other hand, the Hyuuga had been able to see how the tree had been manipulated to kill the Uchiha, and both had seen proof of Naruto's involvement directly in front of them. If the Hyuuga told her clan what she had just witnessed, things could get ugly quite quickly. Although they honoured their first two Hokages, the Hyuuga had been glad when the clan split anew and gradually lost their cohesive front, freeing up one side of competition for the most prominent clan in the village – but that was without the Mokuton kekkei genkai. Previously thought uninheritable, Orochimaru's experiments had proven it could be transmitted through Hashirama's genes, if a weakened form at a terrible cost – not that it was widely known that Tenzou wielded the Mokuton. Sarutobi had no intention of letting the snake know that one of his most prized experiments had in fact succeeded, and certainly Tenzou was not nearly as versatile with the bloodline as Hashirama had been – the Shodai had controlled the very essence of plantlife itself, extending to anything that had been formed of that, as Naruto's transformation of his chair had just demonstrated.

Sarutobi shuddered to think of the fallout when it was revealed that the pariah of the village held the complete bloodline.

And as for the Uchiha's reaction to the news of their old rival's gift bursting anew...the less said about them, the better.

Finally, he came to a decision. "I am declaring what you saw to be an S-rank secret. You may not reveal it to anyone, whether a fellow ninja or your respective clan heads, no matter how much they demand the information. If you do, the penalty will be...severe. Do I make myself clear?"

Both girls had paled drastically (which was saying quite a lot, considering that both were from clans that prided themselves on their 'porcelain' complexions) at the barely hidden threat of execution, neither having realized that it was that serious. However, they quickly murmured their assent, knowing that they had no other choice, and Sarutobi nodded. "You are dismissed."

Looking relieved, the two got up and headed out of the door, though not without a backwards glance at Naruto on Kiyumi's part. Sarutobi waited until he heard their footsteps fade away, before he turned to Naruto. It was time to explain some of the truth to the boy - oh, not everything, not the full truth of the heritage that could plunge him into danger if the wrong people could wind of it - but enough so that Naruto could understand, and hopefully be happy about the great gift his genes had bestowed him with.

* * *

Naruto felt incredibly excited - but also, very confused. "I have a kekkei genkai?"

The Sandaime nodded, his eyes flickering up to the portraits of the four Hokages that lined the wall. "An a powerful one at that, Naruto. The Mokuton has only ever been wielded by two others in the history of Konoha, neither of whom were" - technically - "related to each other. It seems that you are the next."

Naruto absorbed this, his blue eyes narrowed. He had always dreamed of being special, of having or being able to do something - anything - that would make the other villages sit up and notice him, and not just walk away while looking at him nastily for something that he didn't understand. But he had never dreamed of something like this. His head was still swimming with the knowledge that had hit him as soon as he woke up, and part of him hated the change...but on the other hand...

That guy in the forest hadn't stood a chance against it. And Naruto liked that. He liked that a lot.

"The first wielder of the Mokuton was our own Shodai Hokage, Naruto. He used it to shape the land that we now live on, and transform it into a place where Konoha could be safe and prosper. The other wielder became a great ANBU and a loyal shinobi of Konoha. Both were powerful ninja Naruto - if you work hard when you enter the academy, then there is no reason you cannot reach such heights as well."

He would have said more about Tenzo, but refrained - as the ANBU 'Tora', Tenzo rarely used the Mokuton in battle unless he was certain that he could kill all his enemies, both so that 'Tora' would not be linked to the ordinary shinobi Tenzou, and also so that Orochimaru, who still evaded their spies, would not realize that his experiment had been successful. Naruto could learn about him later - after all, the man was probably going to retire in a few years anyway.

Naruto nodded silently. It was true that he liked the idea of being powerful, of being respected - but there was something more. He never wanted to be as he had been in the forest again - helpless, cowering, frightened. He wanted to be able to fight, to be able to defend himself. He would work with this Mokuton, work to become a great ninja - and no one would ever make him helpless like that again.

* * *

For some reason, many citizens of Konoha, both shinobi and civilian, felt a strange chill run down their spine.

**Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Mokuton Child**

**I doubt anyone actually pays attention to these disclaimers, but just to be sure: I don't own Naruto.**

Naruto was moved from the orphanage the next morning.

He hadn't gone back the night before, having slept in the Hokage tower, on a musty spare futon someone had pulled out from somewhere. He hadn't really wanted to stay, but the old man insisted, and it _was _kinda cool, sleeping in the same place the Hokage worked. Even so, he had expected to be able to go back to the place he had lived all his life the next day - only for the old man to tell him that he was going someplace else.

"A new home Naruto, all to yourself. As an orphan of Konoha, your needs will be covered by a subsidary fund, until you graduate as a shinobi or reach the age of sixteen, whichever of the two comes first. I have spoken to the woman in charge of the building; she is willing to provide meals for you and oversee the basic necessities, although you would be in charge of cleaning, I'm afraid. It's an old building, and there aren't many other tenants - you would have the top floor to yourself. Wouldn't you like that?"

Naruto did like that, as it happened, but he liked what came next even more. The old man had rooted around in his desk for a moment, before coming back up with a piece of paper, a list of names marching over it in neat black lettering. There was a long title heading the paper, but there was only one word in it that interested Naruto, and that word was _Academy._

"You're old enough to start there Naruto, and that is only the beginning of your ninja career - if, of course, you are agreeable to it."

"Of course!" Naruto was indignant that the Hokage could ever think otherwise. "Just you wait, old man - I'm gonna be the most awesome ninja ever, even better than you!"

The old geezer chuckled at that, ruffling his hair. "I'm sure you will, Naruto. Now, if that is all, I think it's time you went to your new home."

His new home turned out to be a squat, three-story building with small windows, the white plaster outside stained beige by age, buried in a civilian district. It was all very neat, with square slices of sharp grass, blooms of red and pink in firmly potted flowers at the windows and narrow, cobbled streets that were all long lines and severe right angles. It looked boring, and part of Naruto wanted nothing more to start livening it up, perhaps with that bright orange paint he'd pinched from the arts and crafts cupboard - but no. He couldn't do that. If he started causing trouble, they might kick him back to the orphanage, and the orphanage-

_bright red eyes kunai flashing_

-wasn't safe. He'd be able to make the place cooler when he was a proper ninja - until then, he'd just have to grit his teeth and hope it got less boring once he'd been living there longer.

An old woman, the papery folds of her eyelids scrunched up against the morning sun, was introduced to him as Oshiro Akahana, the landlord of the building. She didn't look particularly pleased to see him, and she haggled with the ANBU about what her duties were in a horrible croaking voice that sounded as if her lungs could crumble at any given breath. They had arranged that she would cook for him and do his laundry in exchange for a load of money, and she didn't sound happy about it at all, the miserable old grouch. But Naruto didn't care about any of that, because she eventually gave him the keys to his new home, and it was _awesome._

OK, the place was old - really old; the old lady had muttered something about not having a tenant in his room since the start of the Yondaime's reign, and Naruto knew that had been ages ago. The actual building had been made long ago, and he could feel that in the ripple of the wood under his feet, the vaulted ceiling with its thin braced support beams, the way he had felt the aged creak of the wood, not in his ears, but all the way down in his bones as they went up...

Yeah.

He couldn't explain how he knew that sort of thing, but just by looking around his new home, Naruto could see it wasn't very big, and he couldn't even work most of the things in the tiny kitchen, or figure out how to clean it like the old lady said he had to or there'd be Consequences. But it was _his_, this one-bedroom apartment with the squeaky floor and humming air-conditioning, and that made it brilliant. He went to sleep in the narrow bed happily, and had no dreams.

The next morning, one of the masked men turned up to collect him for Academy registration, waiting patiently by the door as he struggled into one of the few sets of clothes that had been brought over from the orphanage. They wouldn't speak to him, only grunting at his questions, but that was fine. Naruto was going to start on his journey to become the best ninja that ever lived, and eventually people like this wouldn't be able to ignore him any more.

* * *

The Academy's yard was full of kids by the time they arrived, their parents standing at the sidelines, chuckling as they watched their children play. Naruto wanted to join in with the games, but some of the parents were nudging each other and glaring in his direction. The old man had told him he should just ignore it when they did stuff like this, but Naruto glared back - he wasn't going to let them act like he wasn't here any more.

A large man came out of the doors of the Academy, and began waving his arms as he called out to the mass of kids in the yard. "Children! Please get into an orderly line and come to the door!"

It took a lot of pushing and shoving, which Naruto happily participated in, but eventually everyone was in something that, if not orderly, at least resembled something of a line. The man sighed as he looked over them, but he welcomed them to the Academy anyway, telling them that his name was Funeno Daikoku and that he'd be their teacher. Before long, they were being directed into a classroom, and told to find a place to sit. Lots of the other kids had friends already, so Naruto sat nearer to the back, where there was less risk of being shoved out of the way. Two other boys were sitting there, a Nara with spiky hair and a large boy who was gulping from a large packet of crisps, and a small girl with blank white eyes was sitting to the left. He smiled at them, and got a lackluster nod from the Nara, while the girl squeaked and went bright pink, which he thought was a bit weird.

The guy at the front began telling them that they were now part of the Academy, the beginning of their path to becoming a ninja of Konoha and what a responsibility that was. As he began droning on and on about how only hard work could take them forward now and the need to study well in order to succeed, Naruto let his attention drift. He really wanted to be a ninja and all, and he'd work, but why was it all so _boring?_

Suddenly, one of the floorboards creaked, and the guy let out a cry of surprise as it splintered under his foot, jolting him from his speech. The class burst into giggles and he smiled painfully wagging his finger. "As you can see, class, the first lesson a ninja must learn is to always be prepared - and to keep their floors properly maintained."

Everyone else seemed to find it funny, but Naruto squirmed in his seat. He had a nasty feeling about what had just caused that wooden floor to change, and he knew deep down that the old man wouldn't be pleased if he found out. He couldn't just concentrate on being a ninja now - he'd also have to keep his attention fixed, or face more wooden things coming alive around him. It was brilliant in a way, knowing he had such an awesome bloodline, but on the other hand...He'd prefer to wait until he could use it properly before being able to show it off as he wanted to.

But then the guy started talking again, and it was so **boring**, and Naruto let his attention drift once again.

* * *

After only a few days in the Academy, Naruto found to his frustration that learning to be a ninja wasn't nearly so fun as he'd thought it would be. Sitting in the classroom, staring at bits of paper for ages was bad enough - there was nothing to _do_, and he got so bored, trying to make sense of the stupid sentences on the page - especially when he had to stay still for ages, listening to teachers talk and talk for ages. Whenever he tried to liven it up, he got sent out of the room, or had to stay behind once everyone else had gone home, doing nothing but kicking his feet against the desk while a teacher glared at him from the front. Naruto didn't see what being a ninja had to do with learning how to write kanji neatly, or knowing the dates of the Shodai's reign, or looking at stupid chakra diagrams, but for some reason, it was apparently Very Important, which didn't make it any less suckish.

The best parts of going to the Academy was when they were allowed to go outside to learn how to throw shuriken and spar with each other, but even that involved work, like 'calculating trajectory distance' and a whole lot of other long, boring words. It didn't help that, no matter how hard he flung his shuriken, Naruto missed way more often that he hit, something that the other kids made fun of him quite a bit for. Sparring was fun, and he was way better at it, 'cause he could stand getting punched way more than some of the other kids could - but even then, the teachers told him that he was sloppy, and even he could see that the people from ninja clans, like that Sasuke guy, were already way better than he was.

At his new home, he and the old lady who owned the building avoided each other as much as possible, even though Naruto knew the old man had told her to cook and clean for him. She left him meals in the foyer, but they were often cold and damp by the time he got to them, or weren't really that much at all, and she certainly didn't try to clean his place, which had become so messy that the orphanage staff would've thrown about a hundred fits about it. On the plus side, she didn't bother him about going to bed early, or brushing his teeth or anything, which was pretty awesome, and at times he could stay up playing for as long as he wanted. Some days, he woke up so tired that he just snoozed his way through class, only waking up when an irate teacher would throw some chalk at him, or just stared blearily at his work, not even bothering to try filling it in.

Other days, he didn't bother going in at all, and it was on one of those days when he found the flowers.

They'd belonged to one of the tenants who lived below; he'd left suddenly in the last few days, and Naruto could guess why, given how the old lady seemed even more angry with him than usual these last couple days. So quickly had the guy left that a lot of his stuff had been abandoned, and the old lady had been quick to pitch them in the rubbish. She'd piled up the flowers in the landing, waiting for a genin team to come and remove them, and Naruto, skulking about to avoid going into school, had seen them right away. They were so colourful, all of them - reds, greens, golds, blues, bright pink, even orange, the best colour of all. They were all way too nice to just throw away, and so he decided to rescue them.

It took a lot of huffing and heaving, and left a trail of dirt on the landing that the old lady would probably kill him for, but Naruto managed to drag all of the pots inside his apartment. Some of the flowers he recognised - daffodils, trailing ivy, miniature roses, geraniums - from the ones the orphanage used to have, but mostly they were a riotous splash of colour in the dinginess of his apartment, and that made them brilliant enough in his eyes. He settled them all in as best as he could, 'cause he knew plants needed sunlight and water, and on the days he actually went to the academy, he'd always rush home to check on them as soon as possible.

He needn't have worried. It didn't take much for those plants to grow. The shriveled husks swelled into colour within days, shimmering ivy tendrils snaked through the air, and against his window, flowers bloomed, turning the light into a haze of green and shadowing the apartment in darkness.

* * *

"This is a bad idea," Yuki hissed, pale eyes darting about nervously as they pressed their way through the bustling streets of Konoha. "A really bad idea. Why won't you _listen_ to me?"

Kiyumi lifted one shoulder, resolutely not looking in her teammate's direction. "No one asked you to come."

Yuki tossed her hair, the ornaments glinting in her dark auburn locks catching the sunlight and casting jeweled tones across her creamy skin. It would have looked far more attractive had it not been for the murderous look on her face, as well as the fact that Kiyumi was fairly sure it had been an attempt to throw her off track. "Very mature, I _must_ say. I hate to break it to you, but no one asked you either. In fact, right now, I am very much asking you _not_ to."

Kiyumi waved a hand, deftly avoiding a protruding fruit stall. Her katana was slung over her back in its plain sheath, the handle jutting over her shoulder, and the weight of it was steadying even through her nerves. "Look, it's not serious, OK? I just want to check that he's doing alright."

"He's got the Hokage looking after him," Yuki persisted, one hand on Kiyumi's sleeve as they wound their way through the crowds. "The Hokage. You may recall him. Elderly, wears a hat, the _most powerful ninja in the village?_ If Naruto has him watching out for him, then he's probably not in any danger - though we could be, if you don't stop being foolish. Remember how Sandaime-sama acted in his office? He looked as though he might rip someone apart when we were done. They've probably already caught whoever was responsible...Well, I mean, if there was anyone else responsible."

Despite her attempts at a calming tone, Yuki looked a little green as she spoke, clearly remembering just what had happened to the one person they could be sure had done something. Kiyumi said nothing, but a cold feeling had slithered through her stomach with every word Yuki spoke. In many ways, her teammate was right. The Hokage had looked furious when they brought Naruto in, and she didn't doubt any more than Yuki that no one would dare to touch the kid if the most powerful ninja in the village was watching over him. That Naruto had also been moved from the orphanage so quickly also spoke to the fact that he was being looked after. Really, she wasn't needed at all by him - and she certainly didn't want to give the Hokage any idea that she might have somehow been involved in what had happened to him.

But then, in a way, she had been. Senzai had been part of the Uchiha clan, and a shame on one of them was a shame on them all. That was what Kiyumi had always been taught, and to her mind, there was little more shame than could be found in trying to kill a child - and worse than that, a child who had no clan, no family to defend him. The very thought that someone could do that made her blood boil, and the fact that her kin had done that, tried to hurt a kid who couldn't have done anything to him - it made Kiyumi sick, in a cold, lurching way that she couldn't forget, no matter what the Hokage said.

Worse than that, however, had been the reaction of her clan. Uchiha Senzai's remains - and she didn't envy whoever it was that had had to retrieve them from that monstrous tree - had been returned to them, but Kiyumi would not have known that if she hadn't gone on her normal weekly trip to visit her parents' graves in the ancient Uchiha cemetery. Their polished block of a gravestone had been the same as ever, decked out as it was with the wilting flowers from last week's visit, but not two rows away had been another grave, that of Uchiha Sayuri. Her name had been etched on the stone along with that of her spouse, his name marked in red ink to show that he still lived. Now, that red ink was washed away, and the two had been reunited in death, Uchiha Sayuri and Uchiha Senzai. As if the man had been any other Uchiha. As if he had done nothing wrong.

The unnerving thing was how...silent everyone had been on the subject. It was as if Senzai had been dead for years instead of little more than a week. His house had been cleared out by grim-faced Uchiha officers, no one spoke his name, and when Kiyumi tried to ask her aunt about it, she had been brushed off with a brusque "he died on a mission." No one else in the clan knew what she had seen, and her tongue had burned with the urge to scream that no, it hadn't been a mission, it had been a cowardly, _evil_ attempt to murder a child and covering it up like this meant that something seriously sick was going on. She might have thought that it was shame at what he had done, an attempt to pretend that he had never existed...except that it had all been done with the air of any other comrade dying on a mission, and something was definitely up about it.

So.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Kiyumi wasn't going to pretend she knew a great deal about the kid - certainly no more than Yuki - but what she did know was troubling. No family, a troublemaker - though, considering that he was a tiny kid who looked no more than six, Kiyumi didn't have a lot of sympathy for the adults who got caught by his pranks - and on the receiving end of an icy contempt that she hadn't bothered to think about until she came face to face with the results. The terrified look in his eyes when she saw him crouched in that little hollow, the way he'd clung to her when she lifted him up, his obvious fear when he walked into the Hokage's office had all stayed with her even when the Hokage sent her away. Maybe it was nothing now, but she still just want to check that he was OK - and if Yuki didn't like it, she could go play fetch with Kegawa.

Unfortunately, the Hyuuga proved resistant to that idea, and she was still nagging Kiyumi when they turned the corner and saw the house that a gossiping Yamanaka had let slip she'd seen "that horrible boy" emerge from several times. Kiyumi coughed as they neared the brightly painted red door. "You can still leave, you know."

Yuki crossed her arms defiantly. "If you insist on getting yourself into these sort of situations, then I suppose someone has to make sure you can get out of them. I refuse to stay stuck on a team with only Kegawa if, if you get yourself in trouble over this."

Making a face at the mention of their teammate, Kiyumi raised a hand, preparing to knock on the door. However, before her knuckles could make contact, the door swung open, and they were greeted with the sight of one of the most sour-faced old women Kiyumi had ever seen - and that was saying a lot, considering some of the Uchiha clan's matriarchs. Wrapped up in a bright floral kimono, with a huge pair of spectacles perched on the end of her thin nose, she looked as though Kiyumi could snap her in half with one finger, not that you could tell by the glare she was fixing on them.

"Yes? What do you want?"

Kiyumi put on her most charming smile, which didn't appear to soothe the hag much. "We came to see Uzumaki Naruto, ma'am. Is he here?"

The old woman's expression curdled as soon as she mentioned his name, but she gave a stiff little nod, and gestured at them with one brightly-coloured sleeve to come inside. They followed her into a plain, narrow hallway, up a flight of rickety stairs, and then onto a landing, down which marched several small doors. As the old lady headed for one, Kiyumi exchanged a troubled look with her teammate. Even here, in Naruto's own home, there seemed to be no end of disdain for the kid - and she'd let them in awfully quickly. Given what had happened to Naruto, the fact that she was so nonchalant about allowing people into see him was a bit disturbing.

Unless there were other people watching over him. The thought made Kiyumi shiver, and her eyes flickered to the windows. There were no ANBU crouched outside the glass, but then, ANBU was like that. You didn't see them until it was too late.

The old lady gave one short rap upon the nearest door before turning and heading down the staircase without a backwards glance. Kiyumi watched her for a few moments before she heard the click of a latch, and the door swung open.

Uzumaki Naruto blinked up at the two of them, for a moment looking rather like a startled rabbit. Then he smiled suddenly, and his whole face seemed lit up by it. "Hello, Kiyumi-chan, Yuki-chan!"

Well, that was an encouraging reaction, although Kiyumi tried hard not to think what it meant that he was so happy to see a pair of near-strangers. She cleared her throat over Yuki's outraged mutter, mustering her own smile for the kid. "Hey, Naruto. We just dropped by to see how you were doing. Mind if we come in?"

He nodded his head, and pulled open the door, and Kiyumi was at once hit by the strangest mix of smells she had ever encountered. There was a strong, musty stench to the air, accompanied by the reek of stale food and unwashed clothes - but all of that was nearly lost under the damp, rich smell of the air, laden with a dozen sharply sweet scents that enveloped her senses in a dizzying cloud. When she entered the apartment, she saw why.

The place was an absolute tip. Dirty plates were piled high in the sink, marinated in grimy grey water, clothes were strewn haphazardly around the place, the carpet was thick with dust and the floor littered with the practice kunai and shuriken they gave out at the Academy. It was a mess, it was chaos, it was, in short, exactly what Kiyumi might have expected a place to look like that was entirely run by a small child. But what was not expected were the plants.

They bloomed at the windows, in the corner, crowded in boxes lined against the walls, in tin cans on the counters, perched carefully on the window-sills, a veritable jungle of plants that had no business growing here, this cramped, dark apartment with only a kid to look after them. Yet they had flourished, including ones Kiyumi was fairly sure didn't belong inside. Ivy crawled up in the walls in trails of shimmering white and green, miniature roses in every colour trailed thorns from their pots, daffodils shone from several corners and forget-me-nots frothed from a can by the door, whilst other flowers she didn't know flamed in rows along the walls. As Naruto passed them, they would perk up like dogs expecting treats, and to Kiyumi's great disturbance, appeared to try to cling to him, tendrils and petals catching at his hair and trailing down his arms as he went by.

Naruto seemed to be shuffling his feet as they surveyed the place, perhaps aware of how the mess looked. Kiyumi didn't quite know what to say, and so she offered him a tentative smile. "It looks...nice. Did you grow the plants yourself?"

His face split into a shining grin, and she was hit with a barrage of words. No, he hadn't grown the plants by himself, he'd just picked them up because he felt sorry for them, because they were _nice_ plants and only a stupid person would throw them out when they were still alive, and they _liked_ it here, he could tell, and it was cool to have them to come back to, now that he was at the Academy, and he was trying to be a good ninja, the best ever, even if Daikoku-sensei kept shouting at him, and what was Yuki-chan doing?

As it turned out, her Hyuuga sensibilities had been utterly offended by the mess in the room, and she had decided to make a start on cleaning it, one which Kiyumi unenthusiastically dived in to help. Genin missions, if utterly boring, were at least good for some experience in knowing how to clean, and they could at least try and make a dent in the filth surrounding them. Naruto was about as eager to scrub as any child would be, but Kiyumi knew how to get around that.

"Don't you know that good ninja never live in untidy houses? Mess rots your shinobi abilities, it's a proven fact."

That got him helping, and as he started gathering his clothes together (Kiyumi thought she saw a vine drape down to lift a shirt for him, but she blinked and it was still again) she and Yuki began ferreting out just what was going on. It didn't take long to get out of Naruto that, while the old woman downstairs was supposed to be responsible for the general upkeep of the place in addition to feeding him, she frequently preferred to neglect both, and Naruto simply made out as best as he could, relying mainly on the local ramen stand to keep him fed while ignoring the grime piling up around him. Despite all this, he remained cheerful and as obstinate on his goal as ever; becoming the greatest ninja in the village. As they scrubbed the floor with an old bottle of polish that someone had left on a shelf in a cupboard, he happily told her about how he was trying to become as strong as he could, even if it seemed to be a far-off dream given his grudging acknowledgement of poor grades and low ranking in spars.

"I can beat Sakura, or Kensuke or Mashiro, but most of the others can knock me around. Especially Sasuke - he's _such_ a jerk - but I'm going to beat him one day."

Kiyumi laughed, waving a hand when she noticed Naruto's upset. "Naruto, trust me, you don't have to be upset that Sasuke's better than you. He's the son of the Clan Head, and his brother, Itachi - he barely went to the Academy at all. Graduated at seven, and now he's an ANBU, and he's only a couple of years older than me. The whole family's brilliant at the shinobi arts, way better than the rest of us plebians."

"You're related to Sasuke?" Naruto asked, eyes moving over the features that suddenly seemed a bit more familiar - the pale skin, black hair, black eyes and slight build. She shrugged lightly.

"Not very closely - we're really distant cousins. You should see their family bloodline - it traces back to before Konoha's founding, though I think their line only became the head of the clan sometime in the Nidaime's reign. I'm from a lower branch of the clan - I don't really know Sasuke well at all."

"Oh. That's all right, Kiyumi-chan. You're still really nice, even if you're related to the jerkface."

"_Distantly_ related," said Kiyumi cheerfully, although she'd always found Sasuke to be quite sweet in the limited interaction she'd had with him. His father could be a bit of a bastard at times, and Uchiha Itachi was as cool and distant to most of the clan as the moon, but Sasuke was certainly a more polite boy than the one in front of her. Oddly enough, she didn't mind. For all his rough manners, Naruto too was quite sweet once you got to know him - it was a surprise that more people didn't try.

Mollified by her admission, Naruto turned to look at Yuki, who'd settled herself carefully on the cleanest chair in the room, paper spread in front of her as she flicked an ink-brush between her long white fingers, the supple bones of her wrist twisting and rolling as she inscribed something on the paper.

"Hey, Yuki-chan - there's a girl in the class, Hinata, who looks a bit like you, you know with the freaky eyes. Are you related to her?"

Yuki's voice was flinty as she replied, although whether it was due to the question or indirect insult to her prized bloodline, Kiyumi wasn't sure. "That would be Hinata-sama, Naruto. She is of the main family of the Hyuuga, and I am related to her, although I suspect even more distantly than Kiyumi is to Sasuke. We don't know your classmates very well, I am afraid."

Naruto shrugged. "S'alright - I don't know 'em much either. Hey, what're you doing?"

Yuki glanced down at the elegant design in front of her and made a soft noise. "It is a seal, to repel vermin. I expect this place needs it badly."

"A seal? How do they work?"

Yuki shook her head, not that Kiyumi was surprised - as bad as ninjutsu and taijutsu that she was, Yuki guarded the few things that she was good at jealously, and she didn't even let Kiyumi peer at it most of the time. Rather than put her teammate through the bother of defending her work from a small boy, she flicked her wrist at the spare piles of paper sitting primly at Yuki's side. "Fuinjutsu's boring. Why don't you show Naruto some origami instead?"

Yuki quickly concurred with this, and began showing Naruto how to fold the paper, his fingers fumbling with the material as he sought to copy her designs. He was surprisingly good at it, the paper seeming to almost fold itself in his hands, and within moments he had a quite passable crane sitting in his hands.

Delighted by this, he asked Yuki to show him more, and perhaps flattered by the attention, she demonstrated stars, cats, tea cups, butterflies, frogs, and foxes, each technique watched eagerly and replicated almost moments later. So absorbed was Naruto in learning this that he didn't speak much, and they made only small talk as time slipped by. None of them mentioned the circumstances of their first meeting, even if the occasional wary glances out of the corners of Naruto's eyes whenever there was an unexpected sound told Kiyumi all that she needed to know. Seeing that Naruto was managing his origami quite well on his own, Yuki got up and began drifting around the room, dodging the shifting plants as she planted seals for cleanliness, vermin-warding and other things around the room, but her eyes would always look back at Naruto, and there was a troubled slant in them as they did so.

It was dark by the time they left, and Naruto lingered by the door, his body limned in the soft gold light of the bulb dangling above his head. Looking at him, Kiyumi was struck by how small he was, how alone he was, living in this apartment without anyone to even check that he cleaned it. Without thinking, she blurted out "Would you mind if we came to visit again?"

His eyes widened. "Really? I mean," and he made some attempt to stop bouncing in place, "that'd be great, Kiyumi-chan! You can come by any time!"

"No arguments?" Kiyumi asked Yuki as they walked through the streets of Konoha together, their faces shaded orange by the light of the street-lamps. She had expected Yuki to cut in and tell Naruto that she was not inviting herself back by any means, but the Hyuuga had stayed suspiciously silent throughout the whole conversation.

Yuki shook her heard, pale eyes flickering in the direction that they had come from. "He's...not a bad child, for all they say about him. And it was a disgrace, how he was living. I suppose there's no harm in dropping in to see how he is, at least occasionally."

Kiyumi thought of how he'd watched them go, staying by the door long after they'd reached the bottom steps, and nodded. "Yeah. It's a shame; he's such a nice kid. I wonder why no one wants to hang around him?"

* * *

Naruto's fist thudded into the other boy's stomach, and he went sprawling over the dirt. Clicking his tongue against his teeth, Daikoku-sensei made a note on his clipboard. "Match goes to Naruto. Chen, go to the nurse and get that nose seen to."

One hand cradling his gushing nose, the other cradling his stomach, Chen went off, although not before giving Naruto a dirty look. Naruto returned it - Chen had given him plenty of punches and kicks too, and just because Naruto kept going while Chen had lost didn't make him bad. He was about to return to the other kids at the other side of the field, but Daikoku stuck out his arm, blocking him.

"Hold on, Naruto. I wanted to tell you that, while you won the match, your form remains sloppy. You leave yourself open too much, and you use up too much energy when you fight. You have a marked endurance for pain and a large amount of stamina, but that was all that won you the fight. Strength is nothing without skill to back it up."

Naruto bit his lip, not knowing what to say. He knew his fighting needed work - he got kicked around by Uchiha Sasuke and Kiba whenever he got matched up to them, and there were loads of other people in the class that were better than him. But he didn't really know who to ask for help. Daikoku-sensei was nearly always busy with someone else, he didn't have a clan to ask, and while some people like Sakura, the pretty girl who sat several feet ahead of him, were able to learn stuff like that out of books, he'd never been particularly good at working from words. But he needed to do _something._

In order to take his mind off it, he headed over to a training ground. There were generally spare kunai or shuriken that got left in the ground or training posts once teams had had their turns at practicing there, and Naruto found this to be a useful way of getting weapons, given that his allowance didn't really stretch to buying stuff like that. Unfortunately, the ground he arrived at seemed to have been picked clean already, so he retired up a tree to think things over.

The tree was young, he could tell that at just a touch of its whorled bark, but it was big, and Naruto quite easily nestled in amongst the leaves. The bark scraped hard against his back as he moved, and he touched it gingerly. He remembered what had happened the last time he was near a tree, and part of him wished that he would never go near one again. But on the other hand...the tree had protected him. The old man said that it was his bloodline that had done it, that the ability to shape trees as he wanted was part of him. But Naruto didn't know exactly how to do that. It was instinct that had brought the tree to his defense last time - but how did he do it now, when there was nothing threatening him other than his need to be a better ninja?

As he thought, he began to idly fold a bit of the paper in his pocket, hands humming through the motions as he pondered. He'd developed quite a liking for origami - it was quite calming at times, just sitting there and folding, and the shapes you could make were really cool. Kiyumi-chan and Yuki-chan had visited a couple of time since then, and one of those times, Yuki had brought a whole sheaf of origami paper for him to play with. It was quite nice paper too; pulped and pressed as it had been, the memories of the process still lingering on its surface, and deeper than that, the feeling of the slender white tree it once had been-

Suddenly, the paper crane under his hands twisted, energy sparking beneath his fingers. Startled, Naruto let go of it, and it hung in the air, wings fluttering like pale moths, and even without touching it, he could feel his chakra flowing through the fibers, the remnants of the tree that it could come from.

The thought made Naruto's eyes widen. Paper had come from trees, and if he could not manipulate trees as he had that one time, then...maybe he could start out a bit smaller. He willed the paper crane back to him; it settled upon his knee, and, with barely a thought, it unfolded itself, becoming still and flat once again.

Quickly, Naruto set to work, his fingers blurring as he created more shapes, paper crackling under his fingers as he made wings, heads, slender bodies that wriggled out of his hands as soon as he was done, shifting and diving as he laughed. Sometimes, they went limp in his hands when he tried to push chakra in, whilst a couple of other fizzled and burned up before his eyes, stinging his fingers and left only crumpled wisps. But he perservered, and when he was done, there was a cloud of them around his head, bobbing and weaving through the air. Their edges though were rather sharp; when he put out a hand to touch one, it sliced the skin and stained the paper bright red.

So occupied was he that he didn't hear the footsteps approaching beneath the tree, or see the flash of colour passing between the leaves until a voice asked curiously "What are you doing up that tree?"

It knocked his concentration, and all the paper pieces came tumbling down, caught in the spindly grasp of the trees. Biting back a rude word, Naruto peered down between the branches. A girl his age was staring up at him, a pad of paper tucked under one arm. She looked a bit weird - her skin was paper-pale, like she'd never been outside, she wore a colorful shirt that looked a bit like a kimono with red mesh armour underneath, and her auburn hair was only partially plaited - but she didn't seem to be unfriendly, so he carefully crawled down from the tree, the paper nestling in his pockets as he did so.

"I was just...practicing, I guess. It's a new bit of training, it's a bit weird. What about you? What're you doing here?"

She shifted her pad of paper uncomfortably; even from where he stood, Naruto could feel the rustle of the pages, the scent of the thick pages and angrily tried to ignore it.

"I'm waiting for my sensei. She said she'd be here by now, but I think she got held up..."

"You have a sensei?" Naruto asked, fascinated. She looked like she oughta belong in the Academy, but now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her around anywhere with his other classmates. "Are you a ninja?"

She shook her head, biting her lip. "No - no yet. But I want to be! Kurenai-sensei's training me; if I can prove myself to her, I might even join the Academy, and become a shinobi."

Naruto smiled encouragingly. "That's where I go! I'm Naruto, by the way."

"Yakumo. Kurama Yakumo," she said shyly, indicating herself with her spare hand. It trembled a little, and he wondered if she was OK - she looked a bit faint in the dusky evening sunlight, and her breath came a little fast as she stood there. But she only crossed her arms tightly over her chest, smiling softly. "I'm training with Kurenai-sensei; she's helping me with my genjutsu."

"Really? That's awesome! Genjutsu sucks for me, 'cause apparently I haven't got any control - you've got to be really good at it if you've got a sensei helping you."

"Oh - yes, she's-"

With a swirl of leaves, a kunoichi suddenly appeared in front of them, a pretty lady with black hair and red ringed eyes, her red dress swathed in bandages. "Yakumo? I'm sorry I'm late, I had to speak to the Hokage-"

She stopped, seeing him, and Yakumo turned. "Oh, sensei! This is Naruto - he goes to the Academy!"

"Hello, Naruto-kun," the lady said gravely, inclining her head. "Forgive me, but Yakumo and I must go to practice."

"That's fine," Naruto said, giving Yakumo a wave. "I hope you can come there soon!"

"So do I," Yakumo whispered, just before he headed off. He flashed her a last smile before heading home, paper rattling in his pockets.

* * *

One time, the old lady tried to barge into his room. He didn't know why - perhaps she was angry that he had Kiyumi and Yuki visit again; Yuki had spoken to her once, and though he could not hear their voices, the old lady had been flushed and mad for the rest of the day. Maybe she had wanted to tell him something, 'cause the old man said that there were some things that she would have to tell him while he lived at her block of apartments. Maybe he was just late for the food she sometimes set out. It didn't really matter why, only that, one day, while he sat in the middle of his small apartment, shaping paper into translucent white kunai, the door slid open and she stood in the gap, mouth already fixing open in a yell.

She never got it out though, because before she could speak, the ivy around the door struck. Naruto didn't command it, hadn't even felt the need like he'd had that time in the forest, but the slender tendrils darted through the air, coiling around her wrists and ankles and snapping her up in the air, tightening until he thought her frail bones would snap.

Naruto had given a shout and leaped to his feet, slamming out a _DON'T _through the air as best as he could, 'cause he could feel his chakra flaring beneath his skin and he knew somehow that he was causing it - and the ivy went slack, letting the old lady crash into the floor. He'd rushed to help her, but she'd gotten to her feet before she could, her limbs shaking and her rheumy eyes shining with hate.

But there seemed to be fear in there as well, and she never told the Hokage about it. She just backed out of the room, watching as all the plants reared and slithered through the air around Naruto, curling against his cheek in an odd form of embrace. She could've pitched a fit about them too, because he probably wasn't allowed them inside, but she never did. She just stayed away, and never came into the room again - but the food was delivered daily to his door, and it was never cold again.

It was that incident that made Naruto take a closer look at his plants - he'd gotten so used to the way they moved around, the way they seemed to try and cuddle him at every opportunity, that he'd stopped thinking that it was odd that they did that - since that night in the forest, _every _plant he walked by did that. But now he looked at them closely, these plants he'd lived alongside everyday, and he realised that there was something different about them. They were all far bigger than they had been when he first carried them, all with dazzlingly bright colours that drew the eye immediately, but lots of them had changed in other ways, with sacs and thorns or even clusters of little berries where there had been none before. Some of them shed scents that made him dizzy when he sniffed them too long, some that leaked a sharp-scented white sap that looked as though it would be bad to touch and others that simply seemed to move independently of him. But they all draped themselves over him whenever he came near, the way they surged forward reminding him of how some of the puppies at Kiba's place behaved, and he could sense their affection in the way he soaked up the impressions in wood.

Soon, they began slithering up his arms, winding their way around him and stubbornly refusing to let him go, until one day a rose - one that had started out as small as his palm but was now the size of his whole hand, with red-black petals and glistening scarlet thorns - dug itself into his arm, pulling itself out of its pot as it did so. For a minute, he'd tried to prise it off - those thorns _hurt_ - but it simply coiled itself around his arm, the flowers rising up like a snake's head, seeking to be , he gave up, and more came to join it, including a length of that ivy, that wrapped itself around his other arm and seemed in constant competition with the rose for his attention, while other plants draped themselves across his shoulders or curled around his waist.

After that, none of them came off, though he tried at times to get rid of them. They clung to him even when he had a bath - they even seemed to enjoy it, getting to splash about in the water - or went to bed, apparently no longer needing soil, though he didn't know what it was they were feeding on then. They slithered around under his clothes - and he had to make very sure they didn't go anywhere they shouldn't - and he started finding them surprisingly helpful, even if he did have to buy a massive hooded green jacket to make sure that they weren't seen. They would grasp things for him, even rising up to pick things off shelves, and they would occasionally try to slip past his sleeves and collar to get at the sunlight, and he got very quick at forcing them down before anyone could see.

Oddly enough, this made him feel safer. Now, when he sparred, he could feel them writhing against his skin, and he knew that if he wanted, they would lash out lightning-quick and seize whoever he was fighting, or get him out of a sticky situation if needed to. He never used them - he spent more time actively restraining them - because that would be _cheating_, and besides, he didn't want anyone else to know about them. But, still. He knew he could use them if he wanted to.

* * *

Yuki smiled as she cracked open her latest book, the pages white and crisp as fresh snow, the ink bright black against the paper. Kiyumi was off getting kenjutsu instructions from their sensei - doubtless she would come back via the medic-nins after getting sliced up through her own foolishness - Kegawa, whom she avoided whilst outside of missions, was at his clan's veterinary clinic, getting jabs for Setsuna, and there was no one else to bother her in this peaceful forest glade. It was the perfect spot to sit and read this treatise on fuinjutsu theory, undisturbed by anyone-

"Hey, Yuki-chan, how do you control chakra?"

Barely resisting the urge to let out a thoroughly unHyuuga-like shriek, Yuki let the book fall into her lap, and found herself face to face with Naruto, his china-blue eyes regarding her guilelessly. She stood up quickly, the ability to tower over his tiny form quite satisfying as she sought to retain her composure, though her voice carried the edge of a snap when she spoke. "What are you doing here? And how did I not notice you approaching?"

Naruto folded his arms. "I came through the trees, Yuki-chan. You just weren't listening. And I _said. _I wanna know how to control chakra."

Yuki glanced up into the dense canopy above her. She was a ninja - alright, only a genin, but _still. _She should have noticed him coming - unless, she realised with a sour twist of her stomach, it was something to do with that strange control of trees he had displayed. If it could dispatch an adult ninja, she supposed they could camoflague him from a genin's sight as well.

Hmph. The little brat. A bonus point of being a Hyuuga was that this precise thing did not happen. She resolved to practice her Byakugan more.

"Why would you want to control chakra? That's a little advanced for a student of your age. Shouldn't you be running around, playing with wooden kunai? Flinging gobs of paint? Annoying ravenous carnivores?"

Naruto pulled a face. "It's 'cause my jutsu suck. I tried to do a henge like sensei showed us, and it just came out all funny, and he said it's 'cause I have so much chakra, and I need to learn control, but I dunno how to _do_ that."

"He didn't tell you?" Yuki asked, concern gnawing at her in spite of herself. Poor a pupil as he was, Naruto was still a student. If he was struggling, he should have help from his teachers, especially in a matter as delicate as chakra.

Naruto shrugged. "He said there were exercises, and I should go look them up, but I dunno where to start."

"And you decided to come to me?"

Perhaps there was hope for the child after all. She was a Hyuuga after all; in matters of chakra, her bloodline offered her a certain measure of expertise. Despite her lack of skill, even a boy crude as Naruto could no doubt see that her aid would be sensible to engage. She felt a surge of benevolent warmth towards him-

"Well, I looked for Kiyumi, but I couldn't find her anywhere."

"She's training," Yuki snapped, benevolence vanishing faster than a Nara faced with work. Still, Naruto didn't look like he'd be going anywhere, so she let out a sigh. "Very well. Let's see if there's a problem first. _Byakugan"_

Chakra flowed through her tenkatsu, blazing brightly beneath her eyelids as she opened them to a world of transparent shapes. Before her stood Naruto, a veritable ocean of chakra that welled up under his skin, shining bright as a second sun. And such colours! A pulse of blue, vast and fathomless as the sky above, a dappled forest green that rippled under her gaze like a forest breeze, gentle despite its luminous shade. And there, in the deepest point of the humming sea - red. A bright, coppery red, no bigger than a pinpoint, blazing fiercely against the green, so bright that she had to look away for a moment. When she turned back, it had grown a little easier to bear, the chakra that surged through his pathways, flowing through his body and over-

She blinked. "Naruto, what is that underneath your shirt?"

He stiffened for a second, before closing his eyes and opening his jacket. She had seen them through the material anywhere, her bloodline revealing that which had been hidden to her before, but it was still a shock to see the twisting tendrils, the thorned vine crowned with black roses, the numerous other creeping greenery that unfurled itself before her eyes, buds of every colour revealing their bloom. There was poison in there too, pulsing steadily in the thorns of the rose, in the stems of the other plants, and they practically glowed with Naruto's green chakra, animating them into veritable sentience.

"Naruto," Yuki said with what she thought was admirable calm, "why are you wearing those?"

He launched into an explanation that involved clinging flora, an inability to control his own power and a hesitancy that set Yuki's teeth on edge. Clearly, Naruto had been right to seek guidance - if his chakra was capable of this already, she didn't even want to imagine what else it might get up to doing if not controlled. Yuki had no desire to see more men in trees.

* * *

"Using paper doesn't count, you know" Yuki said sternly as she peeled away a sheet of stiff orange card from Naruto's skin. Under her fingers, the skin was hot and humming with barely suppressed chakra, and the carpet around his feet was littered with brittle leaves, thoroughly fried by the sheer amount of energy he was producing. That was the problem, though - he was pouring out so much that he was actively repelling anything he tried to keep on there - anything that didn't come from wood, that was. The leaves were simply too small to cope with the output, but two of the chairs in the room had already sprouted green buds, and she had nearly been knocked out when a heavy stationary pad shot towards his head, the paper fluttering eagerly even after they clamped a paperweight on it.

It was almost frightening, how much chakra he had - easily outstripping her and her teammates put together, and it was only going to grow as he aged. It was no wonder that he was struggling with jutsu - where a glass of water was required, Naruto flooded the room. Yuki had little experience in such things, so she had tried to start him on the exercises she herself had been taught, earlier in her genin education - sticking leaves to his skin, floating them in the air and sticking them to other surfaces. However, not only were those exercises thoroughly inadequate for his vast but clumsy strength, they were also fairly pointless - because anything of the forest seemed determined to cling to Naruto anyway. The only reason more greenery hadn't shot towards him was that the plants he already had were apparently a possessive crowd, whipping through the air like the tentacles of a deranged octopus as they fought to bat away any interlopers.

Biting back a sigh, she decided to turn to another control method. "Watch this, Naruto."

With his eyes upon her, his psychotic vines having withdrawn to let him see, she scooped up some mud from the ground, rolling it between her fingers until she had created a loose ball in her palm. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, focusing her chakra into the ball. Within the tendrils of her awareness, she sensed the loose dirt and the dampness of the water, and with a gentle flare of her chakra, she _pushed, _the ball shrinking and tightening within moments. She let Naruto see it for a moment below she blew on it, scattering the dry dust to reveal a glossy surface, hard and shiny as polished marble.

Naruto stared at it in fascination. "How did you do that?"

"Simple," Yuki replied, shaking off the slight dizziness that came from using the technique - although a useful control method, it sucked up her small store of chakra quite easily. "I used my chakra to dry out and pressurize the earth until it formed thusly. Civilian children do it for fun, although it takes several days to do so by hand. With this technique, you can do so in seconds - but it takes skillful manipulation of chakra, and so is a useful way of refining your control."

Naruto enthusiastically scooped up some more damp earth, splodging it together between his hands until he had a slightly misshapen ball. He screwed up his face tightly for a moment, and Yuki felt the air crackle with a ferocious energy-

Only for the ball to explode, splattering mud against Naruto's face.

He let out a cry of disappointment, and Yuki smiled smugly. "It's not that easy, you know. I did say you would have to practice."

Enjoying the sound of his cursing - although where a child had learned that sort of language, she had no idea - she settled back against the crook of a tree root, pulling out her fuinjutsu book as she prepared for a long wait.

Time crawled slowly by, and Yuki leisurely turned the pages, keeping one ear out for Naruto as she did so. The writing of the book was fascinating - nothing that Kiyumi would appreciate, but the author had clearly been an artist, drafting seals with flawless precision that would be executed with absolutely astounding results, utilizing as little energy as possible. Lazily, her eyes drifted over the name on the spine...and then focused with an abrupt intensity.

She looked to Naruto, then at the book, then at the trees swaying above Naruto's head, then back at the book again. No matter how hard she looked, the name remained the same - Uzumaki Kasumi.

The book had been published more than twenty years ago, a considerable time in shinobi terms. Yet Uzumaki certainly wasn't a common name, and there was only one other that she knew of. She and Kiyumi had assumed Naruto to be a clanless orphan - albeit one with a jutsu that Yuki now thought might be worth further investigating. The ability to control flora like child's play, and a possible relation to one of the most prominent seal masters of the century...Just where - and _whom_ - did Naruto come from?

* * *

Naruto scowled at the ball in his hand, which, after nearly an hour of struggle, had gotten slightly more solid, but not much else. No matter what he tried, the stupid thing either exploded all over him again, or dried up and cracked into dirt on his palm. It was so annoying!

"You must _practice_," Yuki trilled sweetly from her reading spot, blank white eyes regarding him in amusement. "It'll only come with patience."

"How long did it take you to do?" he asked, doing his best not to squeeze the stupid thing into paste, like it utterly deserved.

"Oh, not long," Yuki replied lightly. "Though I was not blessed with such vast reserves as yours, and so I had considerably less to work through. Still, think about it - as soon as you get some measure of control, you can start doing jutsus such as these."

Her hands flickered through a few quick seals, and she vanished in a swirl of leaves, reappearing up in the branches of the tree. He saw her in between the leaves, her hair red-brown against the green. "You see? Jutsus like the shushin can only be used with good chakra control."

With another flurry of hand-seals she stood in front of him again, bringing with her the sharp scent of pines. He lifted his head eagerly, running those hand-seals through his mind. He could remember them, he was sure.

Yuki noticed his new concentration. "Enough of that. If you want to get better, you must work at this first."

Naruto gritted his teeth. No way he was giving up so easily - he'd stay out here all night if he had to. He focused his chakra in there again, trying to visualize the glass-like ball it was supposed to be as hard as he could. He imagined his chakra as a vice, squeezing it into shape, pressing down on it until it solidified...

In his hand, the dirt grew warm, and he opened his eyes to see that it had grown hard, even if it was slightly misshapen rather than the smooth orb Yuki had produced. He thought of shouting out his progress, but decided against it. There was something he wanted to do first.

Again and again he practiced, trying to make sure that it was as compact as possible. When it seemed to grow glassy under his hand, he slipped it into his pocket, and put his hands together. Yuki-chan would be so shocked when he got that jutsu right first time and teleported on the tree right on top of her head!

Closing his eyes, he ran through the seals, focusing his chakra, and _jumped._

For a moment, he seemed to hang suspended in darkness. Then suddenly, the wind was whipping at his hair, there was empty sky all around him, and only a pinpoint of ground beneath his feet...

With a sudden shock, Naruto realised he was standing on the highest spike of the Yondaime's head.

The jutsu had taken him right to the top of the Hokage Mountain!

He almost lost his balance, toppling at a dizzying rush towards the ground hundreds of feet below. But in his panic, the various plants around his body acted, shooting out from his sleeves and trouser legs and seizing hold of whatever they could in nooses of green. The impact jolted Naruto's limbs sharply, and he had to close his eyes for a bit as he swung in midair. Then, summoning his will, he pushed chakra into the plants and they began to drag him up, letting go of one anchor before seizing another, crawling over the top of the mountain like a spider with spiky green limbs. It was only once he was safely on the ground again that he allowed himself to relax into a boneless heap. That had been **scary** - but also completely awesome at the same time.

Yuki was torn between utter fury at his stupidity when she finally caught up to him, relief that he was alright and utter amazement that he'd managed to do that in the first place. Relief won out, and she extracted several promises from him to never do that again before she sent him home. Naruto didn't mind - he'd only promised to never shushin to the Hokage Mountain again. But when he was a bit better at chakra control...Oh he had plenty of ideas for that jutsu.

* * *

Naruto was going to tell Kiyumi all about what he'd been up to when he next saw her, but the look on her face when he ran into her in the middle of Konoha's market stopped him from bombarding her with descriptions of his amazing ride up the Hokage's face. Something had clearly rattled her, and tried as he might, he couldn't quite get out of her what was wrong.

Luckily, Yuki turned up shortly afterwards, a boy with Inuzuka tattoos and a hooked nose following her, a small grey puppy yapping at his heels. The boy was sent off quickly - from the curt looks he gave them, there wasn't much friendship between the three of them - but Yuki stayed, and went off with them to browse through the shops, concern evident upon her face. Naruto disappeared down an aisle of animal-shaped wallets quickly, one eye on the many cute purses and one on the angry-looking shopkeeper, but his ears were fully focused on the conversation between the two older girls - one that quickly yielded results.

"...fished his body out of the river this morning. He'd been dead for a while, from what my uncle says."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, it wasn't as if I knew him that well. I don't think I exchanged more than a few words with him over the years - he was only my third cousin, and he was a lot older. But still...I mean, I couldn't have imagined it happening."

"Do they know what did it? He was one of your clan's best ninja, wasn't he?"

Naruto heard a bitter snort. "You bet. He was one of the prodigies, almost on Itachi's level - my aunt thinks that that means there must have been an accident, because you'd think that if he was fighting for his life, someone would notice, right?"

"Probably," Yuki agreed. "He could have just fallen - or perhaps he was drunk. It wouldn't be the first time even a ninja lost their life to the Nakano. The currents are brutal at this time of year. How are his family...dealing with it?"

"My aunt went to see them last night; she says his father's taken it pretty bad. He lost his wife in the wars, and I think Shisui was all he had. But Itachi...apparently he went absolutely ballistic when the officers came to tell his family. Aiko-san was there; she said he looked like he might kill somebody."

There came a moment of tense silence before Yuki spoke again. "I suppose it must be hard on him, if they were best friends. I can't imagine what that must be like."

Kiyumi's voice took on a wry note. "Yeah...I mean, imagine if _I _died. How could you possibly cope with that?"

"By calling your stuff, I suppose."

"Oh, thanks!"

"What? I take far better care of my belongings than you do. I can't think of a better way to honour your spirit than ensuring they are finally handled properly. And it is wise to plan ahead, considering your survival instincts. I mean, given how many ridiculous situations you've ended up in, you'll probably be dead by sixteen anyway - best to allocate your belongings properly, while you still have time."

"You put your grubby hands on any of my stuff, and I'll be haunting you for the rest of your life-"

Deciding that the conversation probably wasn't going to go much further, Naruto choose the green frog and ducked out from behind the aisle. He'd been rather worried about how tense Kiyumi was, but it didn't seem like much was wrong at all.

* * *

One night, after Kiyumi returned home after training with her team, she found her clan in turmoil. Members of the police force were posted through the streets, clustering around the graveyard and glaring at anyone who so much as looked at them, all the children had been brought inside, and there were whispers flying through the streets as well, mutterings of graves and thieves and Shisui.

"What's going on?" She asked her aunt as she came inside the house, furtively trying to flick grass off her bodysuit as she did so. For once, though, Uchiha Uruchi couldn't care less on the appearance (and abilities) of her perpetually disappointing niece. She had been a chunin, long ago, before she had retired and her own skills slipped into a soft plumpness, and there were traces of it in her eyes, the way she kept watching all the entryways and darting glances to to all the weapons in the room.

"Someone tried to get at Shisui-kun's body in the morgue," she told Kiyumi in a hushed voice while her husband prepared dinner with a grimace on his face. "They were standing over his body with a scalpel when Yakumi-san interrupted them; he'd come in for the report and he sensed a disturbance. They disappeared when he sounded the alarm, but they didn't get his eyes, thank goodness."

"Do they know who it was?" Kiyumi asked quietly, her heart thudding in her chest. A sharingan would be a prize for any village to obtain, especially one of Shisui's calibre, and everyone remembered the attempted abduction of one of the Hyuuga by Kumo. If an enemy had managed to infiltrate Konoha and was now trying to make off with the Uchiha's kekkei genkai...

Everyone in the clan could be in danger.

Her aunt shook her head, looking drained. "They were hooded and masked, and they disguised their chakra well. Yakumi was more concerned with ensuring that Shisui-kun's body hadn't been tampered with, and they've eluded every tracking team sent out so far. Whoever it was, they didn't get the opportunity to touch poor Shisui's body, but Fugaku-sama decided to take no chances. He was burned almost immediately, and they've posted guards all over the cemetery."

"There's only so much we can do, though" her uncle said, bringing the food over to the table. It was her favourite, sashimi, sliced paper-thin, but with her stomach roiling at the thought of someone picking at her family's corpses, she wasn't sure if she could eat a bite.

"True," her aunt agreed. "The police is stretched thin as it is, and ANBU certainly won't offer any help."

Kiyumi frowned. "Why not, Oba-san? It's an attack on Konoha as much as it's an attack on us – they need to find out who got into the village, don't they?"

"Unless they-" her uncle began, but her aunt cut him off quickly. "Enough of that. You know nothing's decided, and until it is, there's no more to be said on the matter. As for you," she turned her eyes on Kiyumi, "you just mind your mouth, and _be careful. _Our clan faces danger from every corner, and we must stay united if we're to keep ahead, understand?"

Kiyumi nodded silently, but her head was whirling, even as she methodically ate her sashimi with wet crunches. Things were getting even more tangled up among the Uchiha, and part of her wanted to scream at her aunt and uncle, to demand to know what was going on. The rest of her, the cowardly part, kept silent. She was afraid of what the answer would be.

* * *

Summer arrived in Konoha with a vengeance, bringing achingly blue skies, golden afternoons that were lazy with heat, and a soft stupor that seemed to have descended on most people in the village. Even Naruto felt drowsy, slumbering through most of his lessons and spending his breaks sprawled out on the cool summer grass with Shikamaru and Choji. He'd never be as close friends with them as they were with each other, but they were great company for just lying around and staring at the clouds - as long as you didn't try to steal Choji's chips. Meanwhile, his class rankings were slowly getting better - although his book learnings remained far behind many, a lot of practicing, especially in his chakra control, had paid off physically, and he was steadily beating his way through the sparring ranks - at this point, he was only a little bit behind Shino.

He'd also been practicing with both his plants and his paper. The former were all apparently capable of moving independently of his own directions, even catching a rubber hurled at his back at one point (although luckily he'd been able to pass it off as just a quick motion of his sleeve) and the rose's thorns seemed to have some sort of retractable ability, given how big they had grown without ripping his jacket. As for the paper...Oh, he'd had fun with that, folding all kinds of shapes, including shuriken, senbon and a katana he'd based on Kiyumi's (only bigger and therefore better). He didn't bring them in, but he practiced with them in the apartment, adding his chakra until they were strong and sharp.

He still couldn't figure how to defeat water with them, though.

So when Daikuko-sensei announced that he would be sparring Sasuke that day, Naruto felt some stirrings of confidence as he approached the Uchiha, who observed his coming with a look of great disinterest. Maybe that wasn't surprising - Sasuke had beaten everyone else he fought with that day - but Naruto still burned with the need to prove himself, to prove that he'd been practicing, to prove that he'd gotten _better_.

"Begin!"

Naruto moved first, jabbing a fist towards Sasuke's face, twisting on the balls of his feet as he did. But Sasuke was faster, and he blocked it with an arm flung forward, his leg sweeping up in a flawless kick to connect with Naruto's head - or, at least, it would have done if Naruto hadn't flung himself backwards, palms catching on the ground as he twisted himself into the move they'd been shown only last week. Sasuke knew it though, and Naruto's feet meet only empty air before a hand grasped his ankle - he crashed against the ground but rolled through the pain, and slid out of the hold with a deft wriggle, coming to his feet moments before he ducked a punch from Sasuke that went wide-

Only to see the glint of wire in the afternoon sun.

Naruto's eyes went wide as he felt the wire seize against his legs; he began to topple, but Sasuke hadn't moved back fast enough, and Naruto lashed out, something sharp and red darting forwards with his fist-

Sasuke let out a small gasp - perhaps he'd felt a sharp pinch - but he seemed to dismiss it as Naruto crashed at his feet, his annoyance at missing the wires buried underneath his sudden horror at what had happened. The thorns of the rose - those glistening, razor-sharp red spines - had sensed a threat and attacked, one scratching the Uchiha even as his wires wrapped around Naruto's legs. The Uzumaki was barely listening as the match was called in Sasuke's favour, filled as he was with fear at what he might have accidentally done.

"Are you sure you're OK?" Naruto asked anxiously as they headed back inside, but Sasuke only sniffed.

"I'm fine. You didn't hit me that hard, Naruto."

"Yeah, Naruto!" Haruno Sakura cheered from somewhere near the back. "You never had a chance of beating Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke looked quite annoyed for a moment, but he shrugged and moved off, while Naruto chewed his lip and prayed that he was right.

* * *

By the time home-time had rolled by, Sasuke had been sent to the nurse, feeling feverish and dizzy and on the verge of vomiting. Daikoku-sensei thought that he'd just caught a bug, and the nurse didn't sound too concerned, but Naruto felt a squirm of guilt even as he headed out of the Academy doors into the brightly idle afternoon, surrounded by his laughing classmates. Parents and older siblings were clustered by the gates, ready to pick everyone else up, but Naruto was about to head off alone - at least, until he saw a head of tousled black hair by the fence.

Kiyumi looked up when he approached, her black armored bodysuit liberally splattered in the red paint she was gamely attempting to slather on the fence in front of her. The culprit seemed to be the small grey puppy Naruto had seen the other day, who was gleefully rolling around, leaving a smear of red from its curly paint-logged coat with each spin, ignoring the admonishments of its partner, who also had the paint spattered across his pants. Yuki alone stood aloof from the mess, but she was gripping her paintbrush very tightly as she glared at the dog, only looking away when he called out to them.

"What are you guys doing here? I thought you were gonna go off on a mission to Rice-"

"We were," Yuki muttered sourly, crossing her arms over her chest and flicking the wood with paint as she did so. "But there has been a mix-up at the mission office, and they've ground most outgoing missions as a result until tomorrow. The only tasks we can undergo now are D-rank missions, such as repainting the fences of Konoha - and the dogs of it, apparently."

"Leave Setsuna out of this," the boy said, scooping up the puppy in his arms. As he looked at him, Naruto realised that he was actually a couple of years older than Yuki and Kiyumi, and he wondered how they'd ended up on the same team. Seeming to feel his gaze, the boy looked over to him, and his brown eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"This is Naruto," Kiyumi said quickly, leaning over the fence to smile at him. "Naruto, this are Inuzuka Kegawa, and Setsuna, our teammates."

The Inuzuka grunted, rubbing a bit of paint off his dog with his sleeve. "Nice to meet you, kid. Hey, Kiyumi, how much more have we got left to do?"

Kiyumi tilted her head, and Naruto glanced around to see that most of the paint was still a uniform rusty red.

"...A lot."

The dog yelped, and Kegawa hurriedly picked up his brush. "Let's get this done, then. I gotta go to the clinic to get Setsuna's eyedrops soon."

"OK," Kiyumi said, waving a hand. "Hey, Naruto, we're getting paid for this as soon as we report back - want to go out for ramen in a bit?"

"You bet! Are you coming, Yuki-chan?"

"Actually, no," said Yuki, looking thoughtful. "There was something I wanted to look at in the library this afternoon - I'm afraid I probably won't have time."

"What was it?" Kiyumi asked. "A fuinjutsu or something? I can help you look for it, if you want - if we can find it quickly, then you can still come out with us."

"That would be...acceptable, I think."

"If you're done planning a girls' night out," muttered Kegawa, "then can we please hurry up and finish this?"

Something prickled at the back of Naruto's neck then, an icy, animal awareness that something was not quite right. Frowning, he twisted around, and his eyes met those of the person who was watching them.

It was a guy, about Kegawa's age, with a ponytail of black hair, cool black eyes and an Uchiha fan stitched to his shirt. He looked kinda like Sasuke - but older, and a lot colder. He stood with an Uchiha woman, who seemed to be calling for Sasuke, but unlike her, he didn't seem to be looking for the younger Uchiha. Instead, he was looking straight over at them, and there was something strange in his eyes.

"Kiyumi," Naruto said quietly, "Who's that?"

Kiyumi turned away from Kegawa, but the guy had already turned around by the time Naruto pointed. As her gaze followed the direction of his finger, her face furrowed into a frown. "Him? That's Itachi, Naruto, the Clan Heir. He's Sasuke's older brother - remember, I told you about him?"

"He was watching us."

"What?"

Naruto frantically pointed at Itachi, who, to the blond's great annoyance, had dropped the stare entirely and was now quietly conversing with Daikoku-sensei, probably about where Sasuke was. "He was watching all of us!"

To Naruto's annoyance, Kiyumi didn't look concerned at all. "He wasn't watching us, Naruto - look, he's going in to the Academy. Must be going to pick up Sasuke - did he get ill?"

Naruto gaped up at her, indignity overcoming the squirming of guilt about Sasuke. "He was! He was staring right at us, I saw him!"

"Why would Itachi want to stare at us? He's ANBU and the next Clan Head; I'm sure he's got better things to do."

"But he _was _looking at us! In a really weird way!"

"Probably wondering why we are all standing around like idiots," Yuki said sternly, rapping Kiyumi with her paintbrush. "We need to get this finished. Come on."

Naruto opened his mouth to argue, but when he looked over again, Itachi and Sasuke were gone. Grudgingly, he trudged off to the training-ground, but he couldn't shake off the small hollow of unease in his chest.

* * *

Konoha's shinobi library was buried deep under the earth, a net of concrete tunnels cold as the grave and lit only by the strips of pale light on the low ceilings, the chairs contained in shallow recesses set among the walls. The entrance was blocked by a pack of chunin, who required a genjutsu check and proof of shinobi status before allowing entry, but on a warm, sunny day like this, few had elected to brave the chill for the sake of a few scrolls and the tunnels themselves were almost empty. The walls were a honeycomb of books and scrolls, tags hanging out of the holes in the stone, and it was these that Yuki examined as she walked, paying only the lightest attention to Kiyumi's chatter as she went.

"-haven't explained to me why we're down here yet. I _told_ you, I don't know anything about seals."

"I don't need you to," Yuki replied, tilting her head as she considered a slim volume bound in crinkled leather, peeling letters stamped on its spine. _'History In Development: A Synopsis of Konohagakure's Treaties In The Shodai's Reign'. _She plucked it from its cubbyhole in the wall, and onto the pile in Kiyumi's arms it went, balancing on the genealogy book she'd pulled from an upper section in the library. "I intend to research; all I require is another pair of eyes."

"Never thought I'd hear a Hyuuga say that," Kiyumi panted, her breath clouding the frigid air as she struggled to adjust the tower of books wobbling in her arms. "But what do you want to know? And why am _I_ carrying everything?"

Yuki didn't deign to answer, instead sweeping the walls with her gaze, chakra humming through the veins around her eyes as she searched for the last book she wanted. The Byakugan had washed her vision into a sea of grey and white, the transparent monochrome of the books yielding against her sight, a million words pressing against her eyes in this single moment. In spite of everything, a thrill of satisfaction went through her. Paper and ink had long been her weapons, augmented by the Byakugan, her sole inheritance from her clan. These things were what she had wielded for so long, and it seemed only right she use them again, if in a far different battle than what she was used to.

The answers she sought all lay here, of this she was certain. She need only seek to find them.

And...there, on the far shelf, three corridors away. A long series of bingo books, issued from every village, their publication stretching back to the start of the Nidaime's reign, when the collections had first been introduced. After a moment's thought, Yuki selected every book published in the stretch of time between the Second War and the Kyuubi's attack. The resulting stack of books was enough to tax even a kunoichi's strength, so she quickly led Kiyumi over to a nearby table, hidden by a panel of shelving. There were more than a few shinobi in here, moving silently as they browsed the shelves, and she had no desire to have anyone ask what exactly she was looking for.

That, of course, did not deter Kiyumi, who leaned over the table towards her, elbows propped on the books she'd just thrown on the table. "What's this about? I thought you were after new fuinjutsu, not," she twisted her head to peer at one of the titles she was leaning on, "_'A Diagram of Konohagakure's Kekkei Genkai Through the Ages'. _Why'd you even need that, anyway? I thought you guys had a clan elder or something to keep track of that sort of stuff. I mean, we've got Nobaru-sama, and he's obsessed with mapping out all the bloodlines and making sure they don't weaken. He had a go at my aunt when she married my uncle, 'cause he was a civilian and didn't have any abilities - as if that matters when running the senbai shop - and he made some noise when I was five about arranging a marriage, the prick."

Yuki felt an unpleasant jolt in her stomach, though nothing in her could quantify what emotion it was that prickled at the thought. "Did they agree?"

Kiyumi made a rude noise. "Nah. He was going on about my bloodline, that it was 'purer' than most and they should take steps to preserve it - he had the nerve to talk about a match with his grandkids, can you believe it? - but my uncle wouldn't let him. Probably worked out for the best, anyway. It's not as if that pure blood's helped my sharingan any. I'd probably muck up any kids I had."

"A sharingan does not a good ninja make," Yuki said, and for the briefest moment she wondered why she was saying it, why she was forcing out words that threatened to curl up and die on her tongue with each hesitant syllable. But Kiyumi's gaze had focused on her, and the warmth in her gaze was worth any potential embarrassment, and they needed to be said. "Sensei says you excel at kenjutsu, considering your age, your fire jutsus are getting better and your lack of skill at genjutsu is no less than Kegawa's or my own. As a ninja, you are well-rounded and an asset to your clan, regardless of what they think, and you should stop behaving as though you are crippled by the temporary lack of a bloodline that many get on fine without."

For a moment, Kiyumi gaped at her, and Yuki fought down the rising flush of shyness that had taken over her at the sight. "Besides, the reasons why you would be a terrible parent are as numerous as they are varied, and there is no need to blame your prominent flaws on your bloodline when the fault really rests with your inadequacies as a person."

"A terrible..._oi!_ I'd be a brilliant parent, thank-you very much! I get on fine with Naruto, don't I?"

"Naruto is a criminally neglected orphan to whom pitifully little kindness has been shown. He'd get on fine with a cannibal if they showed him the slightest affection. That he adores you says extremely little about your moral character, save that you are completely unable to say no to him."

"You're just jealous that he likes me better," Kiyumi pointed out, unkindly if not inaccurately. "Speaking of which, I know you'll be down here for ages, but I've got to go soon. I still have to take Naruto out for that ramen I promised him."

Yuki felt a flash of hurt. "You're leaving? But I need you here - for research," she quickly amended. There was no need for Kiyumi to get an unwarranted sense of self-importance after all.

Kiyumi arched an eyebrow, flopping back into her chair with a smug grin. "I know, but I'm just completely unable to say no to him, aren't I? Besides, you still haven't told me what you want down here. I can't really help you if I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for."

Yuki took a deep breath, and hoped that she could explain this properly. "It's about Naruto. I want to find out exactly who he is."

Kiyumi stilled, her fine white hands splayed out over the books she had been leaning on. When she spoke, it sounded as if it came through gritted teeth. "What are you talking about?"

Yuki folded her hands into her sleeves, holding her friend's gaze even as she nodded to the genealogy book Kiyumi had spoken of. "I've looked in there already, you know. It contains extremely detailed descriptions of all the kekkei genkai ever documented in Konoha, and do you know what the most prized of those was considered? The Shodai's Mokuton."

Kiyumi didn't speak, but the way her lashes flicked downwards told Yuki all she needed to know. "You suspected as much as I did that that is what Naruto can do. The way he controls plants, the way wood behaves around him, how he can manipulate even the most basic remnants of that element - it all fits the way the Mokuton was described in our history textbooks. The kekkei genkai that ruled the Senju, raised Konoha and subjugated the bijuu that the Yondaime had to give his life to defeat - it's come back to the village, after sixty years and it's Uzumaki Naruto that now wields it."

"Yeah, and what's your point?" Despite the effort Kiyumi was making to keep her voice quiet, the sound still carried and Yuki made frantic motions for her to shush. Lowering her voice slightly, Kiyumi continued, this time with a glare in her eyes. "It's Naruto, he hasn't done anything-"

She stopped then, and Yuki knew exactly what she was thinking of. That day when they'd first met Naruto, when they'd walked deep into the forest, his newfound domain, and discovered a full-grown ninja crushed to death by a terrified child. As the first bloom of Naruto's ability, it was an exhilarating sign of his potential. As the implications for just how he could choose to wield that power, it was terrifying.

Yuki chose her words carefully. "Naruto hasn't harmed anyone, and I don't think he would - but there are so many questions that no one will answer. He has the Mokuton; how did he get it? What are his links to the Senju clan? Who are his parents, what happened to them, and why does the Sandaime show such an interest in him? He had no one else, but there are dozens of orphans without family that haven't merited a kage's attention like that - what made Naruto special, even before the Mokuton revealed itself? Why does everyone seem to hate him, a boy who's done nothing to deserve it? You can't pretend you haven't wondered."

Kiyumi gave a grudging nod, staring down at the vast array of information in front of them. "Well, kinda...but the Sandaime-"

Yuki stifled a small shudder at the remembrance of the cold look in the elderly kage's eyes, that day when they'd found Naruto and everything had changed. "This information is available to any qualified shinobi of Konoha. We break no laws by looking at it. Besides," and here she flourished her trumph card, "I wouldn't have thought you would be afraid of a little digging, considering that Naruto more than anyone deserves to know the answers."

"You can't bait me into this, Yuki," Kiyumi said with a snort, and immediately proceeded to undermine her words by pulling one of the books towards herself. "OK, where do you want me to look?"

* * *

Naruto returned to the same training ground where he had first formed his use of paper, and he wasn't entirely surprised when he saw the pale figure of Yakumo standing in front of a training post in the middle. But as he approached, paper cranes and butterflies fluttering around him, he realised that something was wrong. Yakumo's breath was coming out in ragged gasps, her whole body quaking as she threw handfuls of shuriken, none of which came close to hitting the targets. She carried on anyway, almost mindlessly flinging them forwards, seemingly on the verge of tears.

"Yakumo?" Naruto asked hesitatingly. "Are you OK?"

She jerked, dropping the shuriken in a clatter of metal as she spun around, her . For a minute, it looked like she didn't recognise him at all, but then her brown eyes widened minutely. "You're...you're Naruto. The boy who was here before."

"Yeah," Naruto said carefully, coming slowly towards her. "You alright? You look a bit...sick."

Yakumo's face seemed to twist, and for a moment, Naruto thought he saw something hideous shining in her eyes. "I'm _not_! I'm _not_ sick! I _can_ be a ninja, I'm **_fine_**!"

And then her whole face sagged and she burst into tears, crumpling to her knees.

Naruto's indecision vanished; he hurried forward and tried to help her to her feet, bewildered when she stubbornly resisted. "Hey, what's the matter?"

"I'm weak," she said dully, hanging limp in his grasp. "That's the matter." She twisted to look at him and he was startled by the sudden anguish in her eyes. "They say I can't be a ninja at all, that they're just going t-to seal my abilities, and, and-"

"Who says that?" Naruto asked indignantly. He'd wanted to be a ninja so badly for so long, and if anyone had tried to take that away from him, he'd have fought it with all he had.

Yakumo dragged her sleeves over her eyes. "K-Kurenai-sensei. She says she can't teach me, that I just don't have the abilities I need to be a ninja - but I can! I have my genjutsu, I _can_ be a kunoichi, but they won't _listen_!"

Naruto thought back to the way she'd trembled, the frailty of the form he was holding up, and suddenly had an inkling of what was going on. "So...They're tryna stop you from being a ninja because they think you're too sick for it?"

She nodded weakly. "I can't do ninjutsu or taijutsu at all - but there's someone in the Academy who can't do ninjutsu or genjutsu at all, and he's making his way through. I can do genjutsu, easily - look!"

Her hands flew into seals, and the world blurred around Naruto into a charred wasteland, the trees twisting into blackened caricatures, the ground cracked and smoking, flames licking towards them - and he could feel their heat, a ripple of blistering warmth that filled his eyes with tears, until they flew shut, the white glow of the flames still crackling behind his eyelids-

And then he opened them, and he was back in the training-ground, Yakumo staring at him beseechingly.

"That's...that's some genjutsu," he said at last, still tasting the smoke of flames that never were on his tongue.

Yakumo nodded, clenching her fists. "It's the gift of my clan, and I'm the last to wield its power so fully. If I don't become a ninja, then...the Kurama's clan greatness dies with me. I can't let that happen!"

Naruto frowned. "Can't you speak to the old man? The Hokage told me I could be a ninja, even when other people didn't want me too - can't you-"

She shook her head. "The Hokage already gave me a chance - my father begged him to let me become a shinobi, even when I was too sickly to enter the Academy. Now my parents are dead, and I - I don't have anyone who wants me to be a ninja now."

"Well, then...you're just going to have to prove them wrong!"

Yakumo looked up, her long hair tangled around her face. "What?"

Naruto stared at her determinedly. "I can't believe the old man would let you give up your dream like that unless there was a good reason for it - so you'll just have to fight it. If your genjutsu's that good, then I bet you can become a shinobi anyway - that's the whole point of them, that you don't use your body in the fighting! If this Kurenai-sensei won't train you, you'll just have to work on your own, and prove that you're a good ninja anyway - and then they'll probably just let you into the Academy anyway."

Yet again, for the briefest moment, he thought he saw a shadow on her face, the faintest glimmer of darkness in her honey-coloured eyes. But then her lips curled into a soft smile, and she shakily raised herself to her feet. "You're right - I can't give up. If my parents had faith in me, then," she swallowed, "that's enough. Thank you, Naruto."

"It's nothing," he told her, beaming. His dream of being the strongest ninja in the village was always there, sometimes held onto only by him, sometimes encouraged by others - it was only right if he could help other people hang onto theirs in turn.

* * *

From the little scrap of information about the author of her textbook, Yuki managed to track down quite a few pieces of this strange little puzzle and begin fitting them together. As her fuinjutsu book had said, the Uzumaki clan had originated in Uzushiogakure, a village long since destroyed by some unexplained disaster, back in the later days of the Second War. Though the information was sparse in places, it was easy to see that the Uzumaki had been the most prominent clan in the village, with their longevity and skill with fuinjutsu mentioned repeatedly in the different books she read. Not only that, but they had been a large clan, and they had intermarried with many other notable figures - the main branch's last named son had wed the country's daimyo, with a child listed but not named, and though the clan had scattered after the disaster, the books listed previous ties with Ame, Sora, Kiri, Kusa and Konoha, with strong intermarriage with the Senju clan.

Unfortunately, there was no much concrete information on just who had married which person from the other clan. The Shodai had apparently taken an Uzumaki wife, but his descendants were all well-known, with the last living one being none other than the famous Tsunade. There was a faded picture of her younger brother in one of the books - Senju Nawaki, killed in action in the Second Shinobi War, aged twelve - and his features did give Yuki an uncomfortable twinge of familiarity. There were no other descendants of Senju Hashirama listed, but the Mokuton popped up in no other lines of the Senju and Naruto had to come from somewhere. There would be no answers from these history books...but distasteful as the thought was, it would be an elegantly cruel gesture of the gods, to grant the fabled bloodline to an illegitimate cast-off somewhere down the line when the legitimate heirs had tried so desperately to unlock it. One of the older Hyuuga _had_ mentioned the Shodai's son's proclivities for younger women when Yuki asked.

Certainly, there was no resemblance to Naruto in the picture of Senju Hashirama, but then there had been no resemblance between his brother and himself either, so that probably didn't mean much among the Senju. Pondering this thought, Yuki let her gaze slip over to the next page, which featured an illustration of the battle between the Shodai and Uchiha Madara. The artist had probably drawn from the two statues that had been built shortly after the battle - a wise choice; they had been carved by villagers who had known both men and the likeness was said to have been extremely accurate. Yet as she looked at the picture of the Shodai's enemy, she could not help but notice the long, wild hair, the liquid black eyes, the fine-boned features, the general appearance that seemed startlingly familiar-

She darted a glance at her teammate, her face covered by her fall of tousled black hair, then back at the book, then firmly looked away. Some things were better left unasked.

While Yuki had been searching through Senju history, Kiyumi had followed her directive to look for where Naruto's surname had come from. The Uzumaki clan had been splintered by the destruction of their village, and there could be hundreds of their descendants across the continents. But Konoha had long been a close ally of Uzushio, and a number of their famous clans had fled to the village during the war. The daimyo had been killed in the fighting, and most of his family with him, but that one child had survived, and her name-

"Uzumaki Kushina."

Yuki raised her head, eyes watering slightly from the rows of cramped kanji detailing one of the many innovations of the Uzumakis' sealing techniques. "I beg your pardon?"

Kiyumi pushed the book she'd been reading towards her, tapping the open page with one figure. Yuki glanced down, and saw a picture of a beaming kunoichi, her dark red hair billowing around her face as she waved at the camera. The book was dated to seven years ago, and the style of the uniform showed subtle differences to the new standard for Konoha shinobi. But even with that striking mane, the violet eyes and general female build, the facial resemblance to Naruto was astonishing. Yuki glanced at up at Kiyumi, but she didn't need to even ask.

"Born in Uzushiogakure, comes to Konoha in the Second War, qualifies as a Konoha genin, moves up to A-rank - apparently she had pretty great ninjutsu, it says she had enormous chakra capacity - and according to the records, dies during the Kyuubi attack, though it doesn't say how. But given that Naruto was born on that day..."

"It could have been childbirth," Yuki mused, staring down at the smiling face. "Everyone was so busy tending the wounded, it wouldn't be surprising if there was no one around to help her. And the Kyuubi destroyed so many buildings that she could have just been caught in the rubble anyway, if she wasn't out fighting, that is. Many who shouldn't have been on the front lines on that night were called out to battle."

Kiyumi looked sombre. Perhaps she was remembering, as Yuki was, the day they had run for the shelters like everyone else, hearing the screams of the dying and the roars of the Kyuubi shaking the earth above their heads, cowering against the adults as the air crackled with heat and poisonous chakra, the only light coming from the flickering red glow of the Kyuubi's power, though everyone shied away when it began to filter through the shelter cracks. Yuki's mother had died that day, crushed beyond recognition by one of the bijuu's tails, and she could not remember who had brought her out of the shelter, only that the silence following the bijuu's defeat had been almost as terrible as the sounds that came before it.

There were no official records about Naruto's parents, and Yuki had come across nothing concrete about any potential fathers, but Uzumaki Kushina was the most likely candidate for his mother. She wondered if they should tell him. It seemed almost cruel, considering that they could not prove it, and no answer seemed better than a false one. Kiyumi agreed, judging by the way she began flipping back through the pages, letting Uzumaki Kushina's face disappear from view. Thinking hard, Yuki returned to her book, only to be startled by a sudden exclamation from her team-mate.

Startled, she looked up, to find Kiyumi staring down at another picture in the bingo book, one that Yuki couldn't see from her angle. "What is it?"

"Er...Well, nothing, not really. I was just looking, and there's kinda a...Well, I mean-"

Apparently given up on answering, she turned the book around, and Yuki's breath caught in her throat.

The Yondaime smiled from his picture, clad in Hokage robes and hat that did nothing to obscure his golden hair or his bright blue eyes. And perhaps it was because she had spent so long sloughing through books in search of this, but there did seem to be an uncanny resemblance to-

The words were out of her mouth at the same time Kiyumi spoke.

"It's probably nothing-"

"Of course, it couldn't be-"

"It's just because of the hair, really. Lots of guys have that colour hair - hell, just look at the Yamanaka. Naruto doesn't even look that much like him. The face is almost completely different."

"No, you're right. We've been looking so long, we'll probably see him in the Sandaime next."

Looking slightly disturbed at that idea, Kiyumi firmly shut the book, and Yuki set her gaze on the fuinjutsu text in front of her. It was describing a seal design first developed by the clan, which, although difficult to use, became greatly prized in sealing large quantities, even large masses of chakra as in the case of-

Kiyumi swore suddenly, her chair scraping the floor as she stood up hurriedly. "Sorry, I lost track of time. I've got to go, or I'll be late for Naruto."

"Will you be alright?" Yuki asked, fingers tightening on her book. Kiyumi flashed her a grin, eyes darkly luminous in the harsh glare of the lights. "It's a ramen stand, Yuki, and I'll walk him as far back as the Uchiha district. We'll be fine. Though if you're so worried, you can come with me."

Yuki shook her head. "There is something I wish to look at first. I'll see you tomorrow, I suppose."

Kiyumi nodded, and Yuki heard her take off, although she had returned to her book already. There was a word used by the text that she didn't understand, and she wanted to research it further. A strange word too, four syllables that sounded unnatural on her tongue, although she couldn't quite articulate why.

_Jinchuuriki._

* * *

The paper crane swooped over the counter as it danced, white folds flexing and spreading as it dove, weaving drunkenly between the dishes and the customers' turning heads as Naruto willed it to avoid them. He was just pulling back to give Kiyumi a proud grin when a chuckle from the ramen chef startled him, and the crane dropped abruptly into his ramen bowl with a soft plop.

Blushing, he began fishing it out with his chopsticks and looked up to find Teuchi regarding him with an expression of fond admiration. "I've never seen anyone do something like that before, Naruto. Is that something you learned in the Academy?"

"I wish," Kiyumi said, holding the dripping paper with one hand, her soft black eyes running over its chakra depleted form contemplatively. "Most stuff can be manipulated with chakra if there's a will behind it, but Naruto's the first I've seen that uses paper. See, it's even sharp, like steel – you could cut someone nastily with that. It's a proper weapon – a _very_ good jutsu."

Part of Naruto swelled under the praise as she favoured him with a sharp grin, but the rest was worried that they thought that would be all he could do. The stumbling paper construct that he'd been so proud of in the loneliness of his apartment seemed much clumsier, much less impressive under the eyes of others. "I'm gonna make it better though, you'll see. When I can make it work better, it'll be able to fight, like Akamaru does for Kiba."

"Wouldn't think that could do much damage," Teuchi said doubtfully, looking at the crumpled, soggy paper. Naruto had to admit, it didn't look like it could pose much trouble to a fly in that state, never mind people like Kiba and Sasuke.

Kiyumi shrugged. "Maybe not on its own, but chakra enhances a lot of things. You could sharpen the paper like a razor, or strengthen it or enlarge it. You could do a whole lot of damage with something like that, especially if no one's expecting – you'd better not be getting any ideas, Naruto," she said suddenly, catching onto the glint in his eye. "You're a bit too young to be playing around with stuff like that."

Naruto nodded quickly, surreptitiously crossing his fingers behind his back as soon as Kiyumi looked away.

"I'll still make it awesome, though. I bet when I'm bigger, I'll be able to do it to lots more stuff, and soon I'll be the best ninja in the village!"

The genin and chef alike laughed at that, and Kiyumi ruffled his thick golden hair. "I'd tell you not to get cocky – but on the other hand, Naruto, if I could've done just half of what you can at your age, I'd have considered myself well on the way to being a completely awesome ninja. Hey, keep it up like this, and soon you're going to be beating me."

"I already caught Yuki-chan with a trap," Naruto boasted, snapping his chopsticks apart as Teuchi brought over two more steaming bowls. "She thought I'd rigged the tiles, so she didn't check the ceiling, and the paint went all over her head!"

"A ninja must always be aware of their surroundings," Kiyumi parroted solemnly, but she gave Naruto a furtive high-five under the table. He decided not to mention that Yuki had promised him an enormous bowl of ramen to get Kiyumi when she next walked into his apartment – this time with what Naruto felt would be an ingenious use of wires and heavy yellow dye.

The warm chatter, delicious ramen and peaceful surroundings all faded together into a lull that lasted for ages in Naruto's mind, the sky outside darkening from the lavender of early evening into a dark, solid blue. Yet after what seemed to be far too short a time, Naruto's chopsticks scraped his bowl with an unsatisfying hollow _plunk_. Kiyumi, who'd been staring in rather horrified fascination as he devoured his second and third helpings, pulled up her wallet and began to count out ryo while glancing at the dark around them, a wry grin on her face.

"I really need to get a watch or something. Ah, well – come on, Naruto. Let's go home."

Konoha seemed eerily quiet as they headed towards the Uchiha district; barely anyone was on the streets, and even the roofs, the domain of perpetually active shinobi seemed utterly deserted. The silence pricked at Naruto's senses, and under his jacket, the shivering plants pressed close to his skin. He shuddered, and gripped Kiyumi's hand tighter, her fingers curling through his own as if one of them was clinging on for dear life, though he couldn't be sure which one.

Perhaps Kiyumi found the silence as unsettling as he did, because she cleared her throat suddenly as they crossed the needle-thin bridge over the Nakano river. "So, Naruto – how are you finding things?"

"Finding things?" he repeated, baffled. "Whaddya mean?"

Kiyumi shrugged, tilting her eyes towards him. In the moonlight, her face was stripped of all colour, black and white like Yuki's ink and paper. "You know, life. Living on your own. Learning to be a shinobi. Is it...what you expected?"

Naruto considered this for a moment, his steps bouncing as he fought to keep up with her longer strides. "I dunno, really. I thought there wouldn't be so much work, and that it wouldn't be so _boring. _But – I kinda think that makes it better, in a way."

Kiyumi's eyes were fathomless in the dark. "What do you mean?"

"Well...If it was easy, then I'd just get it already, wouldn't I? And it wouldn't mean anything. But I'm gonna work for anyway, and become the strongest ninja ever, and, and everyone's gonna have to see that, and they'll never be able to..."

He stopped abruptly, his breath caught in his throat. Kiyumi turned her face away, and she seemed to be struggling with what she wanted to say for a moment. "To do what that man wanted to do. In the forest."

For once, no words would come to Naruto, so he just shrugged. Kiyumi tipped her head back, staring at the swelling white moon as if it had all the answers she'd ever wanted. When she spoke, it was little above a whisper. "He was Senzai, you know. I don't know if they ever told you his name, but it was Uchiha Senzai."

Naruto looked up at her, unsure. "He was part of your family?"

Kiyumi snorted, and the spell was broken. "Not any more he's not. Naruto, what he did – it was horrible, and no one deserves that, especially not you. I don't know why he did it; I don't think I want to know, but I'm glad you were able to stop it, even if I'm sorry you had to go through it in the first place. A man who would do that...he wasn't worthy of being anyone's family."

Naruto frowned. "Was that why you and Yuki came to see me? 'Cause you felt guilty about it?"

"A little bit. And because you were hurt. No one would tell us anything, but we brought you back in the first place. I wanted to make sure you were safe."

"And afterwards?"

She looked down at him again, and this time he saw the glint of a smile. "Because we _like_ you, Naruto."

He laughed. "Even Yuki?"

"Of course even Yuki, though I reckon she'd crawl over broken glass before she admitted it."

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was a massive yawn. Kiyumi raised an eyebrow in concern. "Are you going to be able to get back to your apartment by yourself? I could walk you there, if you want."

Naruto shook his head firmly, even if part of him would have liked the company for the longer route. "I don't need anyone to walk me back to my place – I'm gonna be a shinobi, remember? But I'll walk you back to your place if you want, Kiyumi-chan."

"Well, I guess I can't resist such a gallant offer. But instead of walking-"

She leaned down and hoisted him up, settling him on her back. He scrambled for balance, looping his arms around her neck and his legs around the narrow contours of her waist as she continued.

"-I think it's safer if we go like this, don't you?"

If Naruto had wanted to argue, his next massive yawn would have cut him off anyway. Instead, he pressed his face into her shard-sharp shoulder-blade, her long black hair tickling his face as they moved. After they'd settled into a loping stride, he stretched up his head and murmured in her ear.

"Did you mean it when you said that Yuki liked me?"

Though he couldn't see her face, there was a note in Kiyumi's voice as if she were smiling. "Are you fishing for compliments now? I said that she liked you already, didn't I?"

Naruto didn't know how to put it into words what it might mean if one person liked him when they said they didn't, because as nice as Kiyumi was, she didn't understand what it was to always see the cold faces and harsh words, to wonder just what he'd done to earn their dislike. He tried, but all he could say was, "She called me annoying."

"Yuki's called _me _annoying ever since I ate her crayon when we were three, and we're still friends. She finds everyone a bother, most of the time, so you're not so special. But hey, I think that's your job, isn't it? Little brothers are always a pain that way."

Naruto froze. "Little brother?"

There might have been the smallest stumble in Kiyumi's step, but it was gone by the time Naruto looked for it. When she spoke, there was no hesitancy at all. "Well, sure. I mean, I don't have any siblings at all, and neither does Yuki, but...I think that's what they're meant to be. Annoying, in the way, but," and she turned her head towards him, "you can't do without them at the end of the day."

Naruto thought of this, and his fingers tightened their hold. "If I was your little brother though...You'd be my sister, wouldn't you?"

Kiyumi tilted her head. "I guess."

"Kiyumi-neechan. Yuki-neechan." He sounded the words in the air, letting them fit around his tongue, before nodding authoritatively. "Yeah, I like it."

"I'd pay to see Yuki's face when you call her that," Kiyumi muttered, shifting him so that he was more comfortable. "But I like it too. Kiyumi-neechan it is then – but I'm not really used to being a sister, just so you know."

"We're awesome," he assured her, letting the cockiness he rarely truely felt fill his voice. "We'll figure it out as we go."

"That's alright, then. Just let me-"

She stopped, suddenly, jostling him against the hard bone of her shoulder. Naruto blinked, trying to peer through the veil of her thick hair. "What is it?"

"There aren't any guards," Kiyumi said softly, staring ahead. Naruto slid off her back and peered around her; in front of them, the Uchiha district yawned into darkness, the gates wide and opened and empty. "There should be guards, I...Where _is _everyone?"

She moved slowly at first, her feet silent as they paced through the gates, but then she was breaking into a run and Naruto scrambled after her, the plants squirming out of his coat to twist through the air like snakes. He didn't like this at _all_, and there was a coppery stink to the air, salty-sweet against his teeth, and Kiyumi had just skidded to a halt, and he crashed into the back of her legs, trying to peer around to see what she was gazing at with such horror in her eyes-

The white moonlight shone down on it all, painting it in stark black and white. The shine of steel buried in flesh. Torn viscera, unfurled red like rotting flowers. Puddles of thick, dark liquid pooling around the slack faces, the wide, staring eyes.

"Oba-san?" Kiyumi whispered. "Oji-san?"

Behind her, Naruto stumbled backward, stomach heaving in nausea, but that just made it worse, because he could see beyond her now, the corpses littering the streets, left out like old sacks of meat of bone, and it was worse, a thousand times worse than the forest, and the plants were uncoiling, thorns and poisons and scents twisting around him as he tugged on Kiyumi's hand, trying to get her to _move_-

There was the faintest flare of chakra, slight as leaves rustling in the forest breeze, and they both turned around. Uchiha Itachi stood behind them, his sharingan bright red against his bone-pale face, his sword wet and shining.

"Kiyumi-san," he greeted, and Kiyumi gave a start, as if she'd never heard her own name before, tearing her gaze away from the corpses to stare at him as one hand curled around Naruto's shoulders, the nails digging right in. "You weren't with the rest of your family. It made things...messier."

"You did this?" Kiyumi whispered, and her eyes darted between the bodies and him for the briefest moment before settling on Itachi's face, wide with incredulity. "You..._why?"_

But Itachi didn't answer her; his eyes instead found Naruto's, and his face seemed to tighten. "He is not of this clan. He shouldn't be here, Kiyumi-san. It was foolish of you to bring him here, tonight of all nights."

"What're you talking about?" Naruto demanded, at the same time Kiyumi, her face twisted in revulsion, said "What's happened to your eyes?"

But Itachi said nothing more, he moved, and Kiyumi was faster than Naruto had ever seen her; her katana arched out of its sheath in a blaze of steel, but it was barely good enough, sparks flying as the blades crashed against each other and broke apart, jabbing and slashing at the two exposed faces. Naruto scrambled up, tried to shout a warning, but a misjudged block as Kiyumi was sent stumbling back, barely able to parry the next blow. For the briefest second, her eyes flickered to his, and the fear in them froze him in place.

"Naruto – Naruto, _run_-"

Fury suddenly seized him, for what sort of any ninja would leave their friend, their sister to die?

"I'm not leaving you!" he shouted, and the plants surged, clawing from his skin and out into the open, a nightmare of writhing red and green, hungrily outstretched for the Uchiha's face-

But as he turned his head, he saw Kiyumi's eyes open wide, felt the ripple of genjutsu, heard the clatter of a falling sword, an anguished shriek, and Naruto's world was plunged into red.

**Well, I said I'd update soon, and I ended up doing it a year late, with a cliffhanger to boot. At least the chapter was long?**

**In all seriousness, thanks to all those who reviewed and sent PMs and who were far more patient with me than I deserved. I wouldn't have got the chapter out without you, never mind sorting out the rest of the story. It was a long difficult chapter to get out, and it featured some things I wasn't expected, such as more prominent inclusions from the anime arcs (what can I say - they get it right occasionally). With any luck, the new chapter will be rolling out at a reasonable time (and I mean it this time). Please** **review to say what you liked or what you didn't, and as I will be offline for these next few days - Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all!**


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